Cold start problems solved--what an idiot!
 

So all winter I've been having starting problems when the car is cold. Multiple pumps of the gas pedal required to squirt raw gas into the carb throttle, start, sputter, die, start, sputter die, start, engage choke full and it now runs at high (2K) rpm.

I made a huge mistake when I rebuilt the carb, and made a huge stupid assumption.

I assumed that because I was able to pull the choke all the way out, and because there was no freeplay in the choke wire, that the choke had to be engaging. NOPE!

The butterfly closes under spring pressure, not from the choke wire. The fast idle cam was engaging, but the choke butterfly was only closing about 2/3 the way. No wonder!

Turns out that a wire harness in front of the carb was interfering with the butterfly closing. There is a cam on the buterfly valve shaft, and it would hit the harness. Turns out that I didn't properly restrain the wire harness with the loop that is on the motor mount in front of the carb. I pulled the harness out of the way, and now the butterfly closes all the way, and now I have absolutely no cold start problems. DUH!

I also used to have a problem shifting gears. Adjusted the clutch freeplay and it didn't help. Bled the clutch with some help from my wife. Couldn't believe how much air was in the line. I drained the clutch master cylinder resevoir, cleaned it out, then added new fluid, and bled it until no bubbles and nothing but clean fluid was coming out the slave cylinder bleed bolt. Huge difference.

Finally I fixed my windshield wiper linkage. I already wrote that up. Overall a very productive weekend. All I have left to really do is 1) replace my rear wheel bearings soon, although the noise isn't getting any worse. 2) clean, relube and adjust the driver's window regulator and track. Very hard to roll window down and up.

Sweet!
Its good to hear from people who have solved a problem once in a while, instead of just posting then never telling us how it turns out!
Glad it was a fairly simple fix, don't you like those? :)

Eggcelent :)

Good to know about the choke! I'm rating this thread a 4 for "use4ul". ;) Thanks for the info!

HEy man buy your wife something nice for helping.(train her hehehe!) Positive reinforcement.

How hard is it to bleed the clutch? I was thinking about doing this as my fluid is loking pretty bad. Is there a good way to do it?

Chris