Educating the agriculture community on every aspect of today’s complex farm machinery.
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My name is Ray Bohacz, and I know that success on the farm is a three-legged stool: agronomy, business, and machinery. I have always believed and life has taught me, that great judgement in the first two areas can quickly be evaporated by poor decisions in the farm shop in regard to maintenance and repair.
Very interesting story about the 1985 Buick Regal and the spark plugs. Same with the carburetor choke function and the throttle plate having to be opened to allow the vacuum to work against the choke plate. I just don’t like doing a cold start on full throttle, I normally have them set at half throttle or less, not sure if that would be sufficient or not.
The thing with most mechanics today is they’re not like the old mechanics, they are technicians. If the computer doesn’t tell them what is wrong, they are lost. Through no fault of their own…that is how they’re trained.
Thanks so much for listening and contacting me. I mentioned your letter in the Idle Chatter episode that will air on October 7. Please e-mail me so that I can open a dialog with you about cold start engine speed. I do not know if you are referencing an automatic choke or a hand choke. Thanks! Ray
Hello Ray,
In my comment on the lost art of diagnosing I was referring to manual chokes, for instance my JD garden tractor mentioned below. I remember when the early models came out in the 1970’s they had to be started with half throttle and full choke before cranking it over. Once it cranked a couple turns, take the choke off and it would start right up. If it didn’t you would have to stop and start the process over again.
It got me thinking about the old Ford 289 that was a beast to keep running after a cold start until it warmed up. I had one of those in my first car, a 1967 Ford Fairlane. It had an automatic choke and I installed a manual choke but it made little difference until it warmed up (unless it had a vacuum leak, but the ones I saw were all like that).
I would like to hear what you think about that motor and why they did that.
Thanks
Gary