<VV> What in the World.....?

[Jason Cesana]

Mine works quite well when I stop fooling around with it trying to get it to
run better! I've never really had a problem cold starting. I've had quite a
few problems hot starting when the valve failed to open properly. Still for
what Chevy was doing it was quite innovative. We are talking about designs
started in the mid fifties. I think the real problem with the choke on the
60 was the lack of proper knowledge of the spring coil. If it got dirty or
clogged up it would not work properly. Simple cleaning would solve it (ask
me how I know that!). Also making sure the spring had not lost its tension
is part of the maintenance for the car. Even seasoned Corvair mechanics can
get tripped up by the 60 choke as they don't often see too many of them.
Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Tony Underwood
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 9:27 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> What in the World.....?

At 05:38 PM 11/2/2009, Jason Cesana wrote:
>And let me tell you the 60 automatic choke is no prize either. The 
>separate chokes on the carbs in 63 were a much better design.


The choke on the 1960 Vairs was marginal at best.

At worst it was terrible and unusable, only way to get the car to start in
the frigid mornings was to stuff a wadded up towel in the air cleaner
snorkle.


> >What in the World could Chevrolet have been thinking when they went 
> >from an
>automatic choke to manual choke control on the Corvair in 1961?


Well... the manual choke did work when you wanted it to.   ;)


>Remember, the (automatic) choke location in 1960 -- it wasn't in the 
>carbs
>-- once they decided to change it for 61, they may have not had 
>sufficient time to get the design change implemented  and working 
>satisfactorily before the 61 models were finalized, so they defaulted 
>to an old standby???  my best guess ...


They were desperate to make SOMEthing work, and they grabbed at straws.




>Meaning 'Plan A' didn't work very good, and manual was 'Plan X'
>
>Bill Strickland

You bet.


At a NC Fall Vair show a few years ago, I attended a tech session hosted by
the Corsa NC carb guru who put on a very good session, 
during which people commented.   MY remark was that the '60 choke 
system wasn't worth a whole lot (to be charitable) and someone else perked
up and said,


"The '60 choke system worked very well."




I SO wanted to say something, but for the sake of civility I kept my mouth
shut.


But, I have never seen an original '60 choke setup that was still 
working since I've been fooling with Corvairs (1979) that hadn't been 
refurbished or parts replaced or something.     Meanwhile, there are 
bunches of '62-up Vairs with original chokes still working fine, untouched.

;)




tony..
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