I took my edel. 1406 off and put on the old smogger stuff back on for sale of my 1984 Z. The car car absolutely perf. before I removed anything, but you know...good ol CA and it's smog laws. I picked up a carb in good condition off another Z at the yard, cleaned it up with carb cleaner and installed it. All vacuum lines are correct, no SES lights. runs pretty good until you stomp on it at which time the nose lunges forward and hesitates, then it catches itself and takes off. WTF???? the first thing I could think of was the ign. module. But it could also be a carb problem. I know it's not a lack of fuel problem. Also the choke is not working, I don't know why, the light is not on, but it still doesn't work. How do I check the choke????

What exactly do you mean by "the choke is not working"? It sounded like classic q-jet bog until you said that.

Also, did you go back to the original type CC distributor when you put the CC q-jet back on?

I had a silimar problem with my Q-jet (the bog). By re-adjusting the IAB and the Secondary AV Tension it took care of it. Check out http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/quadrajet.shtml if you want more info. But if you arent running the right distributor for that carb (as five7 mentioned...he knows more about these carbs than I do...) that could also be the prob.

Also, the choke might need to be adjusted...I've had this happen before and the car was very hard to start.

Guess, assume here that I am a mechanic who knows what I am doing, ( cause I do). I put the CC dist back in.

How do I adjust the choke???? It is EXTREMELY hard to start, and once it is started it's a pain to get it to stay running. I have to give it gas for a couple mins. to get it warm or else it'll die.

I do the ol' secondary adjustment and see if that does anything, but only after I fix the choke.

Sounds like the choke pull-off, it can cause both of those problems. When it's cold, start your car with your air cleaner off and hold the primary air valve open. If the pull-off isn't working, the idle should smooth out when you open it. Also check to see that the little green rod on the secondary air valve is all the way toward the front of the car and not somewhere in the middle of its slot in idle. If it's in the middle it'll let your secondaries open too fast, causing it to bog.

First, it sounds like the choke is not closing when the engine is cold. The choke thermostat has to be adjusted so that it will close the choke butterfly completely when the engine is cold and the throttle is opened slightly. There is a little green weight that should also come up when the choke closes - this is the fast idle cam, which has the idle speed adjustment on the passenger side of the carb, on the bottom, adjusted from the back. But, the choke has to be closing before this does any good.

The choke pull-off should open the choke slightly when the engine starts, as indicated by flyway. But, if the choke isn't even closing, it probably isn't part of your first problem.

Get the choke to close first. You may need to drill out 3 pop rivets that the factory used to attach the thermostat. If they are already drilled out, then it may be a simple adjustment problem (with the engine cold & the screws loosened, rotate the housing while holding the throttle open until the choke closes, tighten the screws), the thermostat coil may not be hooking the choke mechanism tab correctly, or the thermostat may be shot. Or, it could be that the mechanism is just gummed up.

Glad to hear you put the CC distributor back in. I would consider choke adjustment more basic than that.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try to get the choke working better over the weekend.

BTW- the CC distributor was already in the car when I first posed this topic. I did not just put it back in, it's been in ever since I put the quadrajet back in. C'mon now.....only a moron would leave the HEI in while he puts the old quad back in.

You wouldn't believe how many people don't know the types can't be mixed. Wasn't trying to flame, but there have been many, many threads where every possible detail is covered, nothing helps, and finally it comes out that the wrong type of distributor is being used with the carb being used. So, we ask that up front, nowadays.

Hope you get is sorted out. Keep us posted.

This is EXCELLENT advice right here. I was actually searching for advice (on Google) on how to adjust the QuadraJet on my 73 Oldsmobile Cutlass and ran across this. I happened to have an account on ThirdGen so thought I would respond to this. This is exactly what was needed to fix my car.

It's amazing to me, because my 73 Oldsmobile Cutlass has 83k original miles, and while this carburetor is a rebuilt one, the previous owners told me that their car has always had a hesitation from off-idle at wide open throttle, even with the replacement carb they installed 4-5 years ago.

When I got the car last August, I rebuilt the carburetor. It still ran well, but I figured I'd replace the main body gasket, as well as the accelerator pump gasket. It still had that hesitation. Anyway, I found this post, went out to my car, and adjusted it with some needle nose pliers, and went out and flogged on it. From a dead stop, it'll burn the tires for about 20 feet, where as before, it would hesitate, never chirp the tires, and then take off.

I can't believe this car has been like that for 35 years, and just now, after a post from ThirdGen, I was able to fix it.



Thanks!!!

a quadrajet out of the junkyard

rebuild it or send it to me and I will dial it in

for a 150 dollar fee of course

all these posts about a junkyard q-jet

It really is a great carburetor. My 73 Olds Cutlass runs perfect with it... I mean, the idle is rock solid smooth, there is NO hesitation at any rpm at all... wide open throttle now is totally smooth.

The thing just runs awesome now...

ok

different strokes for different folks

I personally, not that it really matters, would never put a junkyard carb on my ride for any extended time

Yeah I totally agree. If you're going to get a carburetor from the junkyard, you HAVE to rebuild it. You don't know what condition it's in.

A rebuild kit is still less than $20 bucks, and is pretty easy to rebuild.