I just bought a rebuilt (not freshly rebuilt) M4ME carb to replace the POS on my LG4. Bear with me, I'm new to working on carbs.

There is a rod attached to the top of the primaries on the passenger side that goes down into the innards of the carb. From diagrams I have found this is the choke rod. On my carb, the top of the rod is connected fine but the bottom seems to be very, very loose. As in I can wiggle it back and forth a lot. The bottom of the rod goes inside the carb and I cannot see the bottom few inches without taking the carb apart. Now, since I am new to carbs I would rather not take it apart but if it is not connected I will have to.

Here is a diagram of what I believe to be a very similar carb to mine.

Now, the piece in question is #356 I believe. It should be connected to #354. Should the bottom of this piece be rigid or be able to move quite a bit?

Thanks in advance

 

When the engine is warm, that rod will feel very loose. There is a weight (#352) in between the choke stat and the carb body that falls and causes the choke plate to open completely. When the engine is cold, the stat will put spring pressure upward on that rod. When the engine is cold, stepping on the gas pedal releases some of the spring pressure to close the choke. After the engine starts, vacuum will pull on the choke pull-off (#55) to open the choke plate to the desired angle.

 

Thanks for the reply. The carb in question is not on a vehicle yet (and has not been since I bought it) and the rod is loose. Does this mean that the engine was simply warm when the carb was removed? Anything to worry about here?

Thanks,
Austin

 

No, the choke stat will change position whatever the current temp is. Room temp would be considered cold.

 

With the carb removed, you should feel spring tension on the choke plate.

 

Thanks a bunch, eseibel67. I guess I will be taking it apart in the near future. Should be an easy fix?

 

It's not that hard to do if you have all the parts, they move freely and you put them together in the correct sequence. It's actually easier if the carb is off the car because you can tilt the carb and choke stat to whatever angle makes it easier to "hook" that rod to the lever.

 

you don't need to take the carb apart to hook that up- you just take the choke housing off and then you get to try to get that rod to hook up to the linkage down inside the opening in the carb body.. sometimes they go right together- sometimes they fight you and you get to remember how to say swear words you haven't used in years..

 

You don't need to take the carb apart at all. It can all be done "externally". A little backround on how it works might be helpful:

The choke has a central shaft that runs stright through from the center of the round choke housing all the way into that "internal chamber" on the side of the carb. Inside that chamber there is is a metal arm that is indexed onto that shaft and captured in place when the choke housing is all the way home on the outside of the carb. That central shaft has 2 flat sides which is what indexes the arm in place on it (the arm has a hole with 2 matching flat sides). At the end of that arm there is a hole that the end of the choke rod installs into to open and close the choke plate up on top of the carb.

There are two things that can be wrong, especially if the carb is built by someone who doesn't know what they are doing:

1. The choke rod is not installed into the hole on the arm.
2. The arm isn't "captured" on the main choke shaft.

#1 is an easy fix. You install the rod turned 90* from it's normal orientation and then you twist it back that same 90* and it'll pop right into the hole on the end of the arm (with a few tries if it's your first time). You'll know you got it when you see the choke linkage move and feel the choke spring tension as you move that rod up and down.

#2 is more tricky beacause you have to take out the choke element and back out the single screw inside that holds the entire choke housing onto the side of the carb. Just enough you can access the end of the main choke shaft inside that cavity in the side of the carb. Then you dangle the choke arm from the end of the rod and fish it down in there, press the choke housing back home and hope you captured the arm on the end of the shaft.

Man, this is difficult to try to explain with words! If I could just jump across the internet and show you it would take less than 2 minutes.

Anyway.... are you sure it's not connected right now? Does the choke element hold the choke plate closed (under slight tension) if you open the throttle a little bit? If so, that linkage is connected. If it's just hanging limp and flopping aruond, it isn't.