Adjusting the choke

[1935Packard]

Inspired by an article in the latest issue of Skinned Knuckles, today I took off the air filter of my Packard to clean out the mesh and re-oil it. As I took it off, though, I realized that the screw holding the air filter to the carb also held in place the cable holding the choke at the proper tension. With the screw removed, the cable is now loose, and tomorrow I plan to put the air filter back on and reattach the cable.

So here's the question: Any tips on the right tension to use for the cable? If all else fails I figure I'll just use trial and error until it "feels right", but I figured you all would know what the right adjustment should be. Oh, and to the extent it matters, my mechanic replaced the automatic choke with a manual choke (on the theory that it was easier and less error-prone), so the car has a manual choke.

I hope that makes sense, although I'm not sure it does. Thanks for any advice you may have.

[Dave Mitchell]

My advice would be to hook the automatic choke back up - that is a really good system and never gives any trouble at all, unless you have a choke with bad pot metal, then you just need to replace the choke or rebuild it. I have put many, many miles on V12s, including my 35, and never once had a choke problem. If you had a problem, I wonder if it is because the weight was on the choke shaft incorrectly. One of the fun things about having a 35 is that you have all the niceties like auto choke, full syncro trans, Bijur lube, ride control, power brakes and clutch - a very well put together package. Dave Mitchell packard12s@hotmail.com

[1935Packard]

Dave,

Thanks for the ideas. My mechanic told me that there had been some earlier work on it that looked rigged and rather fragile, so he just circumvented it with a manual choke (which is certainly easy to handle). Perhaps I'll go back to the automatic choke at some point, although right now i just want to get that cable adjusted correctly so I can get back on the road.

[1935Packard]

Well, fortunately doing it "by feel" worked pretty well; I think I'm all set.

[Dave Mitchell]

If you want any help to get the correct one to work, I will be glad to help you. The chokes look sort of fragile, but they really do work well and are almost foolproof.