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Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:22 pm

I am a man of many weaknesses, but carbs seem to be my very nemesis. It is my understanding (which may be wrong) is that this carb has a electric choke. I have attached a photo. Here is my question, I don't see any wires going to the carb, nor do I see any place where said wire would attach. Please educate me about this carb. Thanks.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:43 pm

Look at the side of carb not shown in the pic... it's up tight against the fan housing unless some one has removed it.

Or they may well have rotated the element to hold the choke open and not function at all so there is no wire to it.

Choke element removed....

Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:45 pm

The choke element on that type of carb is usually on the front of the carb next to the fanshroud. If you take off the A/C element, and base, you should be able to see it clearly. Getting to the element to adjust it, or hook up the wire is sometimes a pain though.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:55 pm

Thanks, it was on the back side. It does not have a wire hooked up to it, but looks like I could easily hook up a wire as the connection is pointed straight up. Do I want to go ahead and hook it up? What is the best way to run the wire? Will it require any adjustment? Thanks for the continuing education.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:07 pm

You can just hook up a wire from your positive side of your coil to power the choke element. As for the adjustment, I used to set mine so that the choke flaps were about halfway closed when the engine was cold. Try that, then take the car around the block to get it warmed up, and take off the A/C top when you get back to see if the element opened the flaps properly. The flaps should be completely open when the engine/choke element is warm. If you only drive your car when it's warm out, you can leave the wire off, and just adjust the element so that it has the flaps open at all times. If you do decide to wire up the choke, use some type of plastic coated/shielded push on connector, or cover it really well with some electrical tape. I've seen more than a few off-road buggys have the carb/intake actually come loose/shift, and contact the energized wire to the grounded metal of the fanshroud shorting out a few things.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:15 pm

I apologize for my ignorance, but where/what is the "element"? Mine appears to be adjusted exactly as you describe. My flaps are open all the time. I really thank you for your time and patience.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:21 pm

before you hook up the power make sure the choke is working properly. take a temporary wire from battery to stab on choke. give it a few minutes, mine takes about 3 min. to open all the way, and see if it works. before doing anything electrical between carb and shroud, you need to put some thin insulation in a patch right adjacent to the disc so that you don't keep shorting against the shroud. mine has a piece of rubber like from an innertube or something like that. it was put on by the p.o. the wire goes to the + side of your ignition coil. these webers are pretty cold natured so the choke is helpful even in central florida. this is my 3d progressive weber. the first came with the car and was perfect. the second was installed by a motor builder in dade city florida. it was on a 1600dp and had a flat spot until i put a 009 dizzy with electronic ignition on it. then no flat spot. the one i have now came with a supposed turnkey engine and has not pleased me. i am now playing the shell game of jetting with it. ordered 6 new jets today and got the first reasonable advice i've heard. ain't it fun?

Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:46 pm

The element thing I'm speaking of is the round plastic thing the little spade terminal sticks out of. It's the yellowish plastic thing in keifernet's first picture. There is an actual heating element inside of it that expands to open the choke flaps. If your flaps are all the way open, someone has loosened the three screws around the element, and rotated it to open the choke flaps all the time. If your engine runs O.K., you could just leave it this way if you like. The only purpose of the choke is to help the engine warm up upon startup. I know quite a few people that drive their cars in the Summer with the flaps open like yours. You may need to keep giving your engine some gas with the pedal when you first start it with the choke open. Hooking up the wiring would help with the warm up, but it shouldn't make any difference after the engine is warmed up. I'm out on the Eastcoast, and I'm going to bed. I'll check back with you tommorrow. The only bad question is one that isn't asked. If I would of had a forum to ask questions back in 89 when I got my car, I could have saved myself a lot of time and money!

Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:08 am

Generally, you need to remove the carbto adjust the choke...
Also, the post on the coil is not such a good Idea. The choke takes a lot of power and can interfer with your ignition depending on the shape of your wireing. Many people have problems with their ignition coils overheating when they hook it up that way and the motor missing at high RPM. Run a new wire from the fuse bok to the choke.

Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:32 pm

Why does VW have their choke on the factory Solex carbs wired to the positive side of the coil? Does a Weber Progressive choke element draw more juice than a factory Solex carb choke?

Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:44 pm

[email protected]

I like the question. I wonder if any one has ever taken an accurate current draw, amperage reading for a comparison sakes.

Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:50 pm

gt1953 wrote: [email protected]

I like the question. I wonder if any one has ever taken an accurate current draw, amperage reading for a comparison sakes.

It is an interesting one... I ran many a progressive on type 1 engines over the years and never noticed a coil "overheat" due to a properly wired up choke on one ( off the + of the coil) :?

Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:09 pm

It doesn't necessarily mean it's correct, but I never had a problem running the choke off of the coil on my Progressive either. The later Solex carbs had that goofy little fuel cut-off solenoid that was wired into the choke lead also that drew some extra current. Although it would be only momentarily, the later cars with reverse lights had the power to the trans/back-up lights from the same + terminal on the coil with the choke/cut-off soleniod as well.

Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:18 pm

It's not going to affect the coil at all, provided that the current draw is not sufficient to starve the coil for voltage. It's not wired through the coil. It's wired parallel with the coil.

The choke elements I tested were all used VW Solex elements, and they averaged around 20 ohms heated. The one Weber progressive choke element I have is brand new, I have an EMPI one, but all bets are off on that, so I hardly consider it a control. The Weber element was about 8.4 ohms heated. That means the Weber element pulls about 1.5 amps and the Solex elements pull about 0.6 amps provided 12V is really 12V.

Is it enough to cause problems? Probably not.. Realize that the wiring also had to power the electromagnetic cutoff, which easily evens the score.. I didn't measure any of those.

You want to be sure you get plenty of power to the coil? Worried that old wiring is not providing the current you need? Fine, I sez. Put a relay to work.. set it up to gate power from the battery via a fusible link to the coil, and use the original coil power wire to trigger the relay. Piece of cake, and you will have all the current you need.

Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:30 pm

Nice post Mark,

I can see where Jimmy is coming from though... like so many other issues on these 30_/40+ old cars and original/hacked/retro/fubarred wiring harness's I can see where * a percentage could have an issue and need a solo wire from the 15/ign run to just the carb... I was not saying Jimmy was "off in the corn field..." but thinking about why I never had an issue is not right... I can now see where others may have one.

Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:28 am

It is not just the added current draw from the choke that causes problems for the coil. If someone just put the Progressive on a bone stock 1600 there would probably never be a problem.

But that is seldom the case. Most are put on modified motors that have more compression, and rotate at hgher RPM's

More compression means higher voltage is necessary to fire the coil.

Higher voltage means longer transformer saturation and more heat disapated into the transformer (hot coil).

What happens is that the coil ramps up from 0 volts to what ever voltage is necessary to jump the sparkgap. It could be 5000 volts or it could be 14,000 volts ( Black E coil) depending on the internal motor conditions. The longer it takes to jump the spark gap, the more energy that is absorbed into the coil itself. This is beause there is no place else for the energy to go untill the spark is released.This makes the coil hot and more resistive so the coil draws even more energy. When you increase the compression or RPM, you increase the time necessary for the coil to reach the voltage necessary to jump the spark gap and release the energy.

Now if you are using a blue coil or a red coil or a Black KW coil you have much more current draw than the stock coil. The wire can usually handle this but not the added 1.5 amps from the choke.

Now add that much higher current draw from the coil to the added 1.5 amp of the Progressive choke and try to pull that thru that 40 year old 16 gage (7 amp rated by the way) corroded wire from the crappy ignition switch and you are just looking for trouble.

Most guys who have high performance motors use dual carbs and no chokes so it is not as much of an issue.

So it is a lot eaisier to just add the extra wire and avoid the situation altogether instead of complaining about how bad the progressive carb is because it misses at high load or RPM.. :D

Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:37 pm

I am really struggling to find any info on this carb other than this thread. I had one installed by a shop about 3 years ago. Hadn't had many problems other than it driving poorly in the cold as well as taking a while to warm up. After 3 years I finally decided to figure this out and after finding this thread I realized it was installed without the electric choke.

I contacted the shop and they said they never install the choke because it is too close to the fan shroud and they don't want to cause a short. They had it so the airflow is wide open at all times. (Fair enough since I am in SOCAL and the weather is fairly moderate) This bug is my daily driver and it is really annoying how terribly it runs in the cold. Often I am driving it in the early morning and late nights when it is cold and the coldstarts/warmup time is unbearable.

I bought an electric choke off ebay for $20 to install but I am having trouble. It says it was for a Weber DGEV but the seller said it would fit my carb (which it does) but the element seems to open the opposite way that I need it to. When it warms up it would pull the arm to the right which would close my airflow, not open.

I really need any suggestions/help I can get. I would prefer to use this carb if possible and not shell out another $300+ for a new one. Any help is appreciated. Am I SOL? What are my options...thanks

Wed Dec 09, 2020 12:34 am

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=386388

This is the dedicated sticky for the 32/36 carb.

Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:20 am

Type 3s run two choke elements, two idle cut-off solenoids and the backup lights from the coil

Wed Dec 09, 2020 6:17 am

I accidentally hooked the back up wire to the coil on my 73 bug. It stalled every time I put it in reverse.