Driving with the choke out

Sh1tbag OToole

Back in the day, when you were on the road was it common to see people driving along who had forgotten to push the choke back in after starting and were leaving a trail of blue smoke behind them for no other reason than that? Particularly on cold mornings?

I never took any notice myself in the choke days but now I wonder how many people just forgot and continued driving

mikeecho

A lot of boardsies have never driven a car with a choke.

Its a long time since I drove a car with a choke.

Sh1tbag OToole

mikeecho wrote: »

A lot of boardsies have never driven a car with a choke.

Its a long time since I drove a car with a choke.

Jaysis, bless their cotton socks eh?

fancy pigeon

mikeecho wrote: »

A lot of boardsies have never driven a car with a choke.

Its a long time since I drove a car with a choke.

I'd say even less have started a vehicle with a cranking handle....

I have a 1974 Land Rover with a starting handle

Odyssey 2005

The good aul days.:eek: Then you'd flood the fookin thing. The bang of fuel would set you high.:).:D

XR3i

choke out and a can of quickstart

TrailerBob

Last thing I drove with a choke was a 1988 Peugeot 309.. it was a pig of a car. Luckily it died after 5 weeks.

TG1

I learned to drive (7 years ago) in a car with a choke and only four gears... I'm still convinced the only reason my older siblings passed their test was that they turned up in it and the tester felt sorry for them...

Jesus.

An old 85 Escort we had needed the choke out for near 5 minutes after setting off in cold weather cos she'd be chugging and spluttering without it (and half the time with it). The choke used to light up orange when it was pulled out presumably so you'd notice it and not forget it

ted1

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Back in the day, when you were on the road was it common to see people driving along who had forgotten to push the choke back in after starting and were leaving a trail of blue smoke behind them for no other reason than that? Particularly on cold mornings?

I never took any notice myself in the choke days but now I wonder how many people just forgot and continued driving

Lots of women used them as handbag holders

jimgoose

Bikes were a lot slower to move to EFI than cars. I had a 1995 Yamaha YZF750SP with a bank of four huuuge carbs and a choke-lever. You get the hang of it - it does get your attention when the choke is on when it shouldn't be.

CIP4

The only think I've ever driven with a choke is a forklift we used to have around the yard and even at that it would want to have been seriously cold before you needed to use the choke. I've never driven a car with one although I know plenty of older ones had them.

CiniO

I was still driving 2 different cars with choke in 2005.

One was my dad's 1997 Fiat Cinquecento 704ccm litre, and other was my own 1993 Cinquecento 903ccm.
However in mine choke didn't really work as car was converted to LPG. It only caused higher idle, but didn't make mixture any richer.

Wibbs

Ahhh… nostalgia.

Odyssey 2005

CiniO wrote: »

I was still driving 2 different cars with choke in 2005.

One was my dad's 1997 Fiat Cinquecento 704ccm litre, and other was my own 1993 Cinquecento 903ccm.
However in mine choke didn't really work as car was converted to LPG. It only caused higher idle, but didn't make mixture any richer.

And cunttogetinta...on gas !!! Your coddin..

CJhaughey

I made up a rope that hung on the choke knob that was the size of a sausage, when I pulled the knob out I would take it off and keep it in my hand, after a few minutes I would wonder what it was doing in my hand and hang it back up and push the choke back in.
Worked well for me.

antodeco

Drive cars with a choke on a weekly basis. One of them needs the choke out a small little bit. The timing is out on it so wants petrol. Small bit if choke and it'll fly along.

One of the other cars I've used the choke as cruise control. Driving Dublin to Waterford on the motorway. Choke out, and the acceleration stays the same!

dloob

I did once.
It flooded at the traffic lights at the turn into work.
Had to get help to push it off the road into the car park

That was also a car where you had to manually move the air intake pipe to the over the exhaust manifold position in winter.
Didn't know about it the first winter I had it and ended up stuck with what I later realized was a frozen carburetor.

CiniO

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

And cunttogetinta...on gas !!! Your coddin..

Not all all...
Here it is



And here is the LPG conversion



And here you can see the choke yoke

XR3i

TrailerBob wrote: »

Last thing I drove with a choke was a 1988 Peugeot 309.. it was a pig of a car. Luckily it died after 5 weeks.

same here, last car with a choke was an '87 309 1.3 petrol

used to have to put a blanket on the engine at night to keep it warm

un-scientific as it sounds, a night without the blanket and she wouldn't start

Noccy_Mondy

My old fellas car stopped on the way to his wedding because they forgot to put the choke back in :pac:

savagethegoat

most of you are referring to Manual Choke of course. Many cars didn't have these but they still had chokes, just they were automatic rather than manual..

_Brian

savagethegoat wrote: »

most of you are referring to Manual Choke of course. Many cars didn't have these but they still had chokes, just they were automatic rather than manual..

I remember the talk of auto choke being on the way and people couldn't believe it would work, all these new fangled gadgets.

I remember starting
My dads 1950's popular with the starting handle and near breaking my arm while at it. Three gears and it continually popped out of third so you had to hold it in or rest your foot against the gear lever.

maximum12

Last car I drove with a choke was a 1983 Renault 9.

People rarely left them out because it was like leaving the immersion on. It was drilled in to you to not do it and petrol was very expensive vs income.

Plus, once the engine warmed up, the engine would be revving at idle so it was hard not to notice.

Senecio

CiniO wrote: »

And here is the LPG conversion

Is that a length of garden hose I see in the engine bay!

ianobrien

On the move to automatic chokes on carbs, the common trick to knock off the choke when it was half on was to give the car a bit of a rev. Then again, some of the auto chokes were feckin' desperate for getting stuck. Some of the Weber ones were terrible as they were stuck onto manual choke carbs (DGAV and DGV anyone?). People started to convert the auto choke to manual ones.

For finding the choke, the prefacelift Citroen AX was great. It was next to the ashtray and had the same finish as the ashtray. When in it was flush to the dash, with no markings on it (worn away). Finding it if you didn't know where it was hidden was fun, and you DID need it to start it.....

landmarkjohn

There's a bit more skill and involvement driving with a choke... full on start, push it in a bit get her running smooth, take off......push it in another bit after a couple of minutes and then remembering to knock it right off. And off course every car had it's little nuances when cold starting.

On the 2.0 petrol camper the choke doubles as a boost lever for turning corners with incline in second gear when cold, and steep inclines.

We had one on the Peugeot 205 1.0 until about 5 years ago, I loved the simplicity of that car, 4 gears no nonsense. I always said if I won the lotto I would keep it for running down to the shops, just for the craic. Unfortunately she had to go when some gowl kicked the wing mirror off it and it then became uneconomic to repair :-)

CiniO

Senecio wrote: »

Is that a length of garden hose I see in the engine bay!

Yeap... Fit perfectly to replace old rubber hose which cracked.

fmcato

ianobrien wrote: »

For finding the choke, the prefacelift Citroen AX was great. It was next to the ashtray and had the same finish as the ashtray. When in it was flush to the dash, with no markings on it (worn away). Finding it if you didn't know where it was hidden was fun, and you DID need it to start it.....

I started driving on one of those. Had to step on the gas while starting on cold nights. And the gear lever felt like the one in a lorry. When I moved on to a BMW Mini I could not believe changing gears could be so easy!

Summer wind

My first car that I learned to drive in was a '92 Toyota Starlet. It had a choke and didn't have power steering. I used to hate when I'd finish work in the winter at 4am and the car would be covered in ice and I'd sit in and pull the choke and hope the car wouldn't flood before it defrosted. I remember my driving instructor was shocked when he said he'd drive my car to demonstrate a three point turn and had to deal with the choke and then wrestle with the steering wheel:)

robbiew

reminds me of a 96 1.6 ford tracer i use to own in durban, no power steering and had to use choke every time it started, even though temp was usually around middle 20's to middle 30' and humid as deck, but would not start without the bloody choke..