My 1985 LG4 electric choke wont come down off fast idle (cold start). No matter how long it is left running, the choke never opens up. I haven't yet verified the voltage coming from the wire, but is there supposed to be only 1 wire? There is only 1 positive wire, no negative/ground wire.

It high idles at 1500rpm, and if I manually open the choke it idles at 750rpm. Has anyone else had this problem and how did you go about fixing it? I can't get a voltmeter until I get to work in a couple days. (sick with the flu).

Thanks!

 

Yes, only one wire; it's grounded through the casting.

If the alternator doesn't work, then the choke will NEVER be fed power.

Check for 12V on the terminal, with the wire hooked up and the car running. Yes/no.

Yes: you need a new choke stat.

No: check to see if the "Choke" warning light bulb in the dash come on when you turn the key to "on" with the engine not running. Yes/no.

No: replace the bulb. Does it work as above now, and go out when the engine is running? Yes (comes on and goes out) / no (either stays on always, or stays off always)

No: you need an alternator. Replace it.

Yes: Do you have 12V at the choke wire terminal now, with it hooked up and the car running? Yes/No

Yes: Does the choke work right now? If not, go back to the top.

No: you need a new choke relay (which is in the "convenience center" under the dash), or there's a wiring problem. Odds are, you won't make it this far through the troubleshooting tree.

 

I can rule out the alternator, I know its running perfectly.

I hard wired a line from the battery to the electric choke, and it started moving like its supposed to. But when I removed the wire, its like the original wire (hooked to the ignition) was doing its job and looked to be keeping power to the choke. I will fully replace the ignition wire to electric choke and hopefully that will resolve these issues.

the car came with this setup as stock, would there have been a fuse for the electric choke in the fuse panel?

 

You'd most likely be COMPLETELY wasting your time doing that, and running the risk of implanting little bombs (in the form of bad connections) that will come back to bite you eventually. Hacking on the wiring is pretty much the LAST resort, not the first thing to do before troubleshooting.

Follow the troubleshooting chart I gave you. That's why I gave it to you.

You're at the first "no" answer. You know you don't have 12V. So: does the light work?

 

The choke light does not come on at all. Would a burnt out bulb really cause the choke to work incorrectly? I guess I have to replace it to find out.

 

Yes, it really can.

Yes, pretty much. That'd be the 1st step. Fortunately it's cheeep and eeezy.

 

just replaced it, and it works beautifully now, just like its supposed to. I never even noticed the light was burnt out until just now. I just happened to have a spare 194 bulb and a torx wrench kicking around. (all my tools are at work basically and I am at home sick)

What a bad system that runs in that fashion when a bulb is burnt out. O well, its fixed now. thanks for your help. Even with a voltmeter, I still would have been chasing ghosts without knowing about the bulb.

 

Now you see why a logical approach to troubleshooting is better than .... some other things.

The deal with the bulb is, the "excitation" current to the alt is delivered through the bulb; sometimes the alt will be able to "start" without that, but usually not. It needs some little bit of current to begin alternating. Without the bulb, the alt will never work. With the alt not working, no power will EVER be supplied to the choke.

You didn't mention it, but I'm going to assume that you were also having trouble with the battery running down.

 

battery didnt have a problem with running down at all actually. Or at least none that I noticed. I'm running an Optima Red Top Dual Terminal and a Powermaster 100Amp Alternator.