Hey all,

went to start the car tonight, but it didnt wanna go, it seems like it wants to go, but then quits.. figured it was probable because the carb we have isnt installed properly.. was wondering if anyone could come in and tell me what is supposed to be connected where... the carb we have im not really sure what it came out of, it has a connecter that is supposed to be bolted into the egr thing on the side of the intake for the choke.. but it doesnt fit for my intake, other than that im not sure where anything goes.. our pcv valve is connected to a port on the front of the carb on the lower left, but not sure if thats the right one, could anyone tell me what is supposed to hook up where.. vacuum and so forth...

thanks..

 

Well, make sure you've capped all your vacuum lines obviously.

Oh man, that's an old truck Q-jet isn't it? Ugh, dual vacuum breaks? Hope you know what the other one does...

PCV valve gets hooked up to the BIG port on the front drivers side.

Vacuum advance for the distributor should probably be hooked up to ported vacuum for now.

Not sure what you mean here? OH wait! That's a hot air choke! Holy cow man, livin' in the stone age eh? Go get yourself an electric choke module for an '84 camaro or something from napa. Hook that up, and wire it to a wire that goes hot when the key is in the "ON" position.

Did you rebuild that carb at all?

 

rebuilt, it hasnt.. but the guy fired the vehicle up and everything for me that this came off of, he had this in a van, but the van had an engine that was transplanted in it with this carb on it.. so im not really sure what it came out of.., but i know it runs good, i just got the carb the other day, im trying not to invest money into rebuilding THIS carb, im needing to get the car driveable relativly soon, and mid june im hoping to put a different intake/carb setup on it... but i kinda just need to be able to drive it off my friends property... haha

anyways.. on the front of the carb where you said the pcv valve is supposed to connect, there are two large ports on the driver side, an upper one and a lower one, which of the two should it connect to? they both appear to be the same size.

edit: also i believe that this doesnt have the dual vacuum breaks, that other spot on the back of the carb is for the choke i believe, because the arm or whatever that goes into the egr, one part of it connected to the choke, and the other connected on teh back of the carb.

 

Okay, let's straighten some things out here.

That's a hot air choke. You either need to get the tubing that goes into the intake manifold exhaust cross-over passage (looks like your manifold has it - that's not EGR, by the way), or put an electric choke element in (I've done that conversion, works fine).

You do have dual vacuum breaks (aka - "pull-off"). That's obvious in your first photo - one on the top front, the other on the back bottom.

The PCV appears to be hooked up to the proper port, which is the one on the base. The large one on the upper part of the body with nothing hooked up now goes to the vapor canister - it's a fuel bowl vent. The small ports are vacuum, one timed or ported (the one on the driver's side), the other (on the passenger side) full manifold vacuum. You need to have your distributor vacuum advance hooked to one of them.

The small port at the top of the air horn in back is the air supply for the hot air choke. If you go with an electric choke, plug that off.

Until you get the choke operating properly, you can't expect the engine to run properly.

 

ok cool thanks, but one question, the port on the front that is large you said is for the dual vacuum breaks, there is also another port that looks exactly the same on the front of the carb on the drivers side at the bottom, you cant really see it in the pic.. what could that be?

 

No, no one said that.
He said the two front LARGE ports, the lower one is for PCV, upper is for the vapor canister.

 

no.. you dont understand, there are three large ports on the front, one on the left that i have the pcv in now, its on the bottom on the left side of the fuel inlet, there is one on the bottom on the right side of the fuel inlet, and one on the right side towards the top...

i see what you mean now about the other ports, but there is a third...

also what do i need to do with the other spot for the vacuum breaks

 

Hmmm, 2 large ports on the bottom front of the carb? I'm not sure I've seen that. They should both be manifold vacuum, though, so use one for the PCV and plug the other.

Let's be sure what we're talking about when we say "vacuum break" - it's a pull-off diaphragm, as circled in red.

 

well what exactly do i need to do for them then? I guess im just not understanding.

 

You don't need to do anything with the pull-offs. They're there, they're hooked up, they'll work.

What you need to fix is the choke thermostat. It needs to be heated so it will open. Stock 3rd gen chokes were heated electrically, with 12 volts supplied to the coil to heat it up. The one on your carb needs hot air to be pulled around it, the air having been heated by the tube that runs in the exhaust crossover passage on the intake manifold. Either hook up that tubing, or get an electric choke thermostat like Sonix suggested.

 

ok cool thanks man, 2morrow when i get off work ill do everything that needs to be done and see if we can get her to start, if she will start then ill buy an electric choke conversion kit.