Electric choke for Weber carb? '94 Echelon

[Michigan boarder]

I'm an idiot.  I had the cap on 90 degrees off.  My wife held her thumb over the #1 hole and I turned the crank, felt the compression stroke, lined up timing marks to TDC, removed the cap and it was way off.  Looked at the tab on the cap - I didn't line up the little tab.  I changed it with my son and was so focused on talking about making sure each plug wire was replaced exactly the same way that I didn't realize I oriented the cap wrong when I changed them.  She fired right up!  Runs great in the driveway.

[Michigan boarder]

New problem.  Water is coming in.  I must have blown the plug out with one of the backfires, found it after I shut it down and pulled up the rear hatch.  I am going to clean both areas up with Xylene and epoxy it in, and regroup tomorrow after it's dry.  Do you guys think it'll be OK with some epoxy, and not a full fiberglass repair?

 

[justgary]

2 hours ago, Michigan boarder said:

I'm an idiot.  I had the cap on 90 degrees off.  My wife held her thumb over the #1 hole and I turned the crank, felt the compression stroke, lined up timing marks to TDC, removed the cap and it was way off.  Looked at the tab on the cap - I didn't line up the little tab.  I changed it with my son and was so focused on talking about making sure each plug wire was replaced exactly the same way that I didn't realize I oriented the cap wrong when I changed them.  She fired right up!  Runs great in the driveway.

You can do that?  Huh?

Glad you got beyond that, at least!

[justgary]

2 hours ago, Michigan boarder said:

New problem.  Water is coming in.  I must have blown the plug out with one of the backfires, found it after I shut it down and pulled up the rear hatch.  I am going to clean both areas up with Xylene and epoxy it in, and regroup tomorrow after it's dry.  Do you guys think it'll be OK with some epoxy, and not a full fiberglass repair?

 

What plug is that?

[Michigan boarder]

1 hour ago, justgary said:

What plug is that?

That goes in the middle, bottom of the silencer.

[justgary]

13 hours ago, Michigan boarder said:

That goes in the middle, bottom of the silencer.

Gotcha.  I don't have a silencer, so I didn't recognize it.

Epoxy should work just fine.  And even if it doesn't, you figure it out and glass it later.

[Michigan boarder]

1 hour ago, justgary said:

Gotcha.  I don't have a silencer, so I didn't recognize it.

Epoxy should work just fine.  And even if it doesn't, you figure it out and glass it later.

I was able to fit it exactly as it broke free.  So then I gobbed some epoxy inside the break, set it in place, then went around it on the outside and finger swiped it smooth.  I think we're good, no leaks this morning on the hose for 20min.  With my design of the silencer anyways (removed the elbows from the inside) it will never hold any water, all drains right thru.  So even if I got some on the thread it doesn't matter.  I'll probably remove the plug after this season and glass it over smooth.

Gentlemen - tonight we ride!

 

[Michigan boarder]

Back to the 12v supply.  Is there a reason for me not to take it off of the oil pressure alarm?  That reads 12v with key on (a little more when it's running, as in the pic) and 0v with the key off.  This would work, right and won't mess up the alarm?  It seems simple but so does changing a friggin cap & rotor 

 

[Michigan boarder]

Well that doesn't work, when running it throws the alarm.  So I've gone back to the choke, now getting a full 12v from the wires that feed the choke.  I think it'll be fine.

But if anybody can let me know where their choke wire comes from I'd appreciate it, so that I could have it set up as close to factory as it should be.

[Michigan boarder]

I ran the choke from the distributor + side and had zero issues.  The boat starts better than it ever has.  It ran like heck, accelerated without hesitation, idles well after some adjustments, etc.  WOT was 4,850 but I didn't have my phone to check GPS.  I'm really happy with how it all turned out.  I'll provide a last update once I give it a chance to sit for a day and have a truly cold start.

[Michigan boarder]

On 5/9/2020 at 9:36 AM, Woodski said:

 Just a comment on the choke operation to help your calibration process, its not really the opening timing that creates the need for adjusting, it is the initial setting point thus the closing spring pressure that sets the choke for start up.  The warm up phase goes okay, its the initial start that is either too rich or too lean.  Once the manifold warms up just a bit, the fuel atomizes better and engine runs fine.  It is pretty obvious when you need to adjust, you'll be good, get black smoke and the obvious rich running or it will sputter and have trouble idling smoothly.  You certainly experienced that with as I recall using a cable choke.  In my experience, it tends to simply be setting the choke one notch to either side of neutral (the longer mark on the housing).  Good luck.

I forgot about this reply, I'll adjust it Wed morning.

[Michigan boarder]

 

Updates:

4900rpm and 49mph GPS.

It starts right up, every time, no pumping of the throttle or anything.  I remove the mooring cover, turn on the blower, finish removing the cover and roll it up on the dock, go to the helm and hit the key and it starts and idles.  But, it's only idling at around 450rpm, and starts to stumble after 20 seconds or so, and the idle will drop unless I rev it in neutral to 900rpm and leave it there.  20 seconds after that it's running very rich, lots of fumes coming off the water, and it basically does that until it is warm, another 30 to 40 seconds later.  

When it is warm it idles very smoothly at 600rpm, but still seems a bit rich.  I will adjust the choke, but after that is there a way to know if my idle air screws are set properly?  I have not touched them yet.

 

[Woodski]

Idle screw adjustment = lean out until it starts to surge, then add ~1/4 turn back in.  Adjust throttle stop to get correct RPM.  Usually 1.5 turns is about correct so you may simply want to start there.

Interesting article:  https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a32935590/inside-the-edelbrock-carburetor-factory/

[Michigan boarder]

10 minutes ago, Woodski said:

Idle screw adjustment = lean out until it starts to surge, then add ~1/4 turn back in.  Adjust throttle stop to get correct RPM.  Usually 1.5 turns is about correct so you may simply want to start there.

Interesting article:  https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a32935590/inside-the-edelbrock-carburetor-factory/

Thanks, that basically what I did, after watching some vids.  We have it tuned perfectly now, idle mixture, choke setting, and rpm.  It runs great and is turn key for anyone in the family (that was the goal all along).

Cool article too!

[Michigan boarder]

On 6/6/2020 at 6:53 PM, justgary said:

You can do that?  Huh?

Glad you got beyond that, at least!

Sorry, I missed this.

Not really, there is a tab that is supposed to line up and I didn't do that.  You can see the indent on the gasket for the tab that was supposed to go in the distributor base.  Seriously stupid.

[justgary]

6 hours ago, Michigan boarder said:

Sorry, I missed this.

Not really, there is a tab that is supposed to line up and I didn't do that.  You can see the indent on the gasket for the tab that was supposed to go in the distributor base.  Seriously stupid.

I had assumed you just ignored it.  I wouldn't have blamed you for ignoring any reminder of it.