TheSamba.com :: View topic - What are your opinions on the automatic choke? Adjust or disarm?

Fri Feb 24, 2023 11:21 am

I have a Bocar 34PICT-3 on our recently acquired '72 Ghia, and from most of the chatter I've seen these carbs aren't exactly universally loved. But I decided to go through the motions and give it the benefit of the doubt before condemning it. Adjusted the valves first, then made carb and timing adjustments. Its' running beautifully, and idles well at about 860 rpm. The only thing left was to check and adjust the automatic choke.

Not much information in the Hayne's manual on choke adjustment, so I consulted the 'How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive Manual' by John Muir, which came with the car. (Very entertaining publication, by the way.) Turns out the author hates the automatic choke and won't even discuss adjustment in the book, just choke disarmament. He makes a pretty good case for this, including poor fuel mileage, unreliability, lubrication issues due to over-richening, etc.

So what are your thoughts on this? He makes a good case for disabling of the choke, and here in South Carolina we don't deal with a lot of cold weather starting issues.

Fri Feb 24, 2023 11:28 am

To each his own... I'm looking at you Mr. Muir.

Personally, I like it. You do need to adjust per season and that's usually a simple turn clock or counter clockwise.

Fri Feb 24, 2023 1:59 pm

My first car had a manual choke. Simple to use and dead-nuts reliable.

I have no issues with converting an automatic choke to a manual choke, especially if the car's automatic choke is a PITA.

Fri Feb 24, 2023 2:22 pm

JSR5150 wrote: He makes a good case for disabling of the choke, and here in South Carolina we don't deal with a lot of cold weather starting issues.
Same here in CA.

In the past, I just removed the choke plate itself but kept the rest of the mechanism intact. That way, I had the benefit of a faster idle when first starting up, but without the down side of dumping extra gas into a cold engine.

For driveability reasons, I do run the full auto choke on my current Beetle. It has a stock 1600 and runs a bit rough for the first few miles if it doesn't get a little extra fuel.

Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:33 pm

A proper working choke is fantastic.

Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:34 pm

x2 on what Braukuche said. I had automatic chokes on both my '74 and '67, and never had problems with either one. Both worked great, made cold starts easy. It never occurred to me that anyone would be in favor of removing them. I'm not that much further north than you, and I would be in favor of keeping it.
One of the 914s I used to own was dual carb with no choke, and cold starts were always a pain having to keep my heel on the gas pedal at stops until the engine was warm enough to hold a steady idle. I say adjust it correctly, which isn't hard to do, and keep it.

Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:19 pm

One negative I've experienced with the auto-choke is that it comes on for a "warm start," such as after going into a store for 10 minutes. In that situation, it's not needed, and can cause the engine to run rough for a minute due to being too rich. I wonder if the folks who disable the choke are those who often stop for 15 minutes or so and then start up again?

Sat Feb 25, 2023 8:55 am

kpf wrote: One negative I've experienced with the auto-choke is that it comes on for a "warm start," such as after going into a store for 10 minutes. In that situation, it's not needed, and can cause the engine to run rough for a minute due to being too rich. I wonder if the folks who disable the choke are those who often stop for 15 minutes or so and then start up again?

Are you pressing the gas pedal on that hot or warm restart? I only depress the gas pedal slightly on a cold start to set the choke. Hot starts I keep both feet on the floor, which will keep the choke wide open where it was when the car was turned off, and never experienced the over-rich condition that you mentioned.

I know the user manual says to depress the gas pedal fully before a warm or hot start, but I always found that advice to be incorrect for both my 67 and 74. Both of those cars fired almost immediately at the turn of the key on hot re-starts.

Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:48 am

Era Vulgaris wrote: kpf wrote: One negative I've experienced with the auto-choke is that it comes on for a "warm start," such as after going into a store for 10 minutes. In that situation, it's not needed, and can cause the engine to run rough for a minute due to being too rich. I wonder if the folks who disable the choke are those who often stop for 15 minutes or so and then start up again?

Are you pressing the gas pedal on that hot or warm restart? I only depress the gas pedal slightly on a cold start to set the choke. Hot starts I keep both feet on the floor, which will keep the choke wide open where it was when the car was turned off, and never experienced the over-rich condition that you mentioned.

I know the user manual says to depress the gas pedal fully before a warm or hot start, but I always found that advice to be incorrect for both my 67 and 74. Both of those cars fired almost immediately at the turn of the key on hot re-starts.

This.
I’ve noticed over the years that all my VWs and Porsches have their own specific starting regimen choke or no choke.

Sat Feb 25, 2023 3:46 pm

With the motor cold:
1) Loosen the 3 screws on the choke assembly just e`nuff so you and move the inner assembly.
2) Remove air cleaner from carb.
3) Step all the way down on the gas pedal (to set the choke).
4) Now slowly turn the choke assembly to the point that the buttery fly is almost closed.
5) Tighten the 3 screws.

Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:19 pm

Era Vulgaris wrote: Are you pressing the gas pedal on that hot or warm restart? I only depress the gas pedal slightly on a cold start to set the choke. Hot starts I keep both feet on the floor, which will keep the choke wide open where it was when the car was turned off, and never experienced the over-rich condition that you mentioned.
Thank you. I will give that a try.

Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:29 pm

Starbucket wrote: With the motor cold:
1) Loosen the 3 screws on the choke assembly just e`nuff so you and move the inner assembly.
2) Remove air cleaner from carb.
3) Step all the way down on the gas pedal (to set the choke).
4) Now slowly turn the choke assembly to the point that the buttery fly is almost closed.
5) Tighten the 3 screws.

Good info, thanks. I'll adjust it and see how it goes with cold and warm/hot starts. I think Mr. Muir is a little extreme in his view on the matter, but I thought I'd run it by more experienced VW owners first.