Not long ago I had a very serious battery short. Among the thing it totally cooked was the choke cable. I removed it today and opened up that black box attached to the choke handle. I was told it would need to be replaced, but for $120 brand new?! There really is nothing to that box, no clamp or anything, just and electromagnet.Has anyone just replaced the cable and attached it to the pin? I just tested mine with the mulitmeter and its fine.

So far Ive found the choke cable and the ebrake cable were both charred to a crisp and seized up. I pulled the ebrake as soon as the smoke started coming out so it cooked it into the park position. The ground attached to the drivers side shock tower fried so bad on the car that when I grabbed the cable to look at, the head of the bolt fell off. You can follow that ground inside the harness even though its all wrapped up. Just follow the burnt line on the outside. Because of that, if I turn on anything that takes electricity it momentarily makes my stereo reset. Plus it think my tail lights are going out because of the really bad grounding. Anything plastic that the choke cable touched melted too. It was laying on the line to the AC relay and across that plastic vent tube under the steering wheel. Cant wait to find out what else cooked. Im mostly just worried about what that ground did to the other wires in the harness. The car itself still runs great though, so not all is lost.

 

I went with a cable I got from a tractor supply. Length was correct for my app and quality was better than OE. Has a nice pull end on it and black sheathing over the metal. But... I'm long away from the rat's nest and cold start assist, so am using it to choke my Mikuni. Are you still stock ? Do you have to go back stock ?

 

My 81 is still completely original save for tires and wipers and stereo.

 

I probably have an extra. PM me if your interested.