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..

bear1

Why would you LPG a 700cc car? On a 5.0 V8 I see the point but not on a Cinquencento.

Special Circumstances

fmcato wrote: »

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!

Trivia time.... First BMW mini gearbox is a descendant of the AX gearbox AFAIK!

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

Why would you LPG a 700cc car? On a 5.0 V8 I see the point but not on a Cinquencento.

LPG was actually on 903ccm cinquecento.

Point is the same on cinquecento as on 5.0 v8. Savings.

As LPG was about 2.5 times cheaper than petrol, I was pretty much driving for half fuel price.

Tigger

jimgoose wrote: »

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.

my 2008 ktm 950 has a choke

bear1

CiniO wrote: »

LPG was actually on 903ccm cinquecento.

Point is the same on cinquecento as on 5.0 v8. Savings.

As LPG was about 2.5 times cheaper than petrol, I was pretty much driving for half fuel price.

How much would the installation cost though?

ted1

CiniO wrote: »

LPG was actually on 903ccm cinquecento.

Point is the same on cinquecento as on 5.0 v8. Savings.

As LPG was about 2.5 times cheaper than petrol, I was pretty much driving for half fuel price.

What's the energy content of a litre of lpg V petrol

dr.fuzzenstein

My strimmer still has a choke!



Other than that, I've had a 1983 Kadett, a 1984 Mercedes 200, a 1973 MKIII Cortina, a mid 80's Daihatsu 3 cylinder 1 liter 4 wheel drive minibus and driven many a petrol cars from the 70's, 80's and 90's and you know what?
Not a single one of them ever had a choke...

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

How much would the installation cost though?

Well we are talking about early 2000's.
I don't know exactly how much it cost, as I bought this car which was already converted. You know obviously it wasn't in Ireland, but in Poland.

As far as I recall, conversion could have cost about 1000zl, litre of LPG was about 1.30zl, and litre of petrol was about 3.20zl.

So assuming car was using about 6.5 litre/100km on petrol, and about 8 litre/100km on LPG, we have a cost of 20.80zl per 100km on petrol, or 10.40zl per 100km on LPG.

Assuming 30k km per year, cost on petrol 6240zl, and cost on LPG 3120zl. (exactly half).

So conversion would be paid for within 4 months, and then after that you are saving over 3000zl per year. In early 2000's, 3000zl was equal to about 5 months work on minimum wage, so IMO saving were considerable.

I'd risk saying it probably still be worth there converting small 1 litre car to LPG even these days.

fmcato

Special Circumstances wrote: »

Trivia time.... First BMW mini gearbox is a descendant of the AX gearbox AFAIK!

Did some research and seems so. Fortunately the Mini I drove was 2005+ so not the case!
www. totalmini .com/forum/54-2001-2006-1st-generation/698-early-mini-rover-midland-gearbox.html

Special Circumstances

CiniO wrote: »

Well we are talking about early 2000's.
I don't know exactly how much it cost, as I bought this car which was already converted. You know obviously it wasn't in Ireland, but in Poland.

As far as I recall, conversion could have cost about 1000zl, litre of LPG was about 1.30zl, and litre of petrol was about 3.20zl.

So assuming car was using about 6.5 litre/100km on petrol, and about 8 litre/100km on LPG, we have a cost of 20.80zl per 100km on petrol, or 10.40zl per 100km on LPG.

Assuming 30k km per year, cost on petrol 6240zl, and cost on LPG 3120zl. (exactly half).

So conversion would be paid for within 4 months, and then after that you are saving over 3000zl per year. In early 2000's, 3000zl was equal to about 5 months work on minimum wage, so IMO saving were considerable.

I'd risk saying it probably still be worth there converting small 1 litre car to LPG even these days.

NEIN!!!

Diesel is the future of green! LPG ist VERBOTEN in dnalerI!

dr.fuzzenstein

^^^
huh?

Special Circumstances

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

^^^
huh?

Ah doc, you of all people know that diesel is the future and none of these fancy pants lpgs or e85 yokes have any place in a civilised world.

dr.fuzzenstein

Special Circumstances wrote: »

Ah doc, you of all people know that diesel is the future and none of these fancy pants lpgs or e85 yokes have any place in a civilised world.

I just didn't get the reference, never watch RTE.
My RTE experience is usually switch over to RTE, watch 5 minutes of Tubbs on the Late Late, vomit blood, switch back over to Freesat.

jimgoose

ted1 wrote: »

What's the energy content of a litre of lpg V petrol

The energy density of petrol is around 34 MJ/l, diesel is 35.8. LPG comes in at 26. Interestingly, the per-kilogram specific energy is around 47 MJ for all three.

Special Circumstances

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I just didn't get the reference, never watch RTE.

I thought you ("they'll wrench the keys to my derv from my cold dead hands") would be eternally grateful to the Greens for their push for "clean diesel" at the expense of "dirty petrol" lpg e85 etc

dr.fuzzenstein

Special Circumstances wrote: »

I thought you ("they'll wrench the keys to my derv from my cold dead hands") would be eternally grateful to the Greens for their push for "clean diesel" at the expense of "dirty petrol" lpg e85 etc

Even I would never claim that diesel is clean. It's just that my daily 120k commute is not compatible with anything petrol.
Anyway, we've done the diesel thing to death, so I'm keeping away from this subject in this thread. Unless you want to argue about 35cc two stroke petrol strimmers.

Special Circumstances

I love the smell of two stroke. Yeah, strimmer is about the only thing I've used with a choke.

jimgoose

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

...35cc two stroke petrol strimmers.

Two-strokes are the work of Beelzebub and the Divil is shtuck in the ornery little bastards. I would advise decent, properly-reared folk to stay well away from them unless you want to end up broke, divorced, covered in oil and huddled in a corner rocking back-and-forth muttering about port-heights and holed pistons. The way that RG250 Gamma went, though - by Jesus. Babba-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING... DING... DING...YEEEEEEEEEE!!! :pac::pac::pac:

fancy pigeon

fancy pigeon wrote: »

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

I have a 1974 Land Rover with a starting handle

Not many would have started a car with one but anyone who worked on building sites would have started a mixer with one!

jimgoose

Noor Alive Millipede wrote: »

Not many one have started a car with one but anyone who worked on building sites would have started a mixer with one!

Not to mention the old Petter-engined dumpers, and similar.