Woah...I'm way lost. Ken, the classes you teach you show pictures or an actual carb when you describe these things right? If not I may need to find a "absolutely minimum basics" course first!

the only thing I can remember with a screw and notches on the passenger's side is a bulbus metal housing with a black plastic cover. Of course when i bought the car two out of three screws were broken off inside the housing and I haven't messed with it since. (Car runs fine, starts cold and needs warming so I left it be, figured the carb was one of the more fiddly bits that I didn't want to learn on a daily driver with). Is this the piece that should be adjusted to the second step? if not, what is it? are the missing screws part of the problem? is it a problem to drive without fixing?

So many questions...but one day I may be a grasshopper. Maybe even a cicada!

O...the car used to idle around 600-650 hot in drive, but last winter when i came home for christmas that had dropped to 400-500...Nobody does much with the car while I'm gone.

Scot

If you can hold out for a while I am going to rebuild the Q-jet on my C3. I will take photos and show step by step. When I get there I will make it available for anyone who wants it. It may be a month or so before I get to it.

Aahh- the gospels according to John, and Ken Almighty.
How many miles are on these carburetor-impaired vettes? It sounds like they need the typical old-fashioned Q-jet adjustments. Or, possibly a rebuild.

Ken-when you rebuild your Q-junk, could you possibly scan the instructions for the adjustments that come with the "Jiffy Kit"? I think this will help a lot of people on this subject.
Al

"Not yet a guru, but not a novice" hahahahaha

I will be glad to scan them. Already in the back seat of my daily driver. I will try to get that up this coming weekend, the make the pictures when I do the job.

Hey Scott, that black plastic thing is the choke coil. Under the metal part it attached toward the front slightly, is the fast idle screw.

Sounds good. The step by step photos will definitely be appreciated! It'll probably be a month before i'm in the same state as my car anyway!

Scot

Great info, Zen Master Ken. I've been digging through my shop manuals, etc. to find some decent photos and/or sketches to help our friends along their journey. No luck yet. Plenty of photos, but none that scan worth spit.

Paragon, you must "enhance your calm." Didn't do a carb rebuild myself until I was about 22. Damn things made me nervous just to look at. That was more than five years ago. Okay, okay - it was A LOT MORE than five years ago.

As I said at the beginning of this discussion, the first order of business is to make sure the choke is functioning properly. And, yes, that bulbous black thing-a-ma-jiggy with the two broken screws is a choke coil which has more than just a passing effect on your cold start status.

Get out the carb and choke cleaner and make that fuel and air mixmaster shine. If your linkages (that would be the little rod-looking doo-hickeys ) aren't able to move smoothly and FREELY, you can turn screws until the end of time without ever fixing the problem.

Now that you have cleaned everything and have everything moving freely and have gotten your butterfly to flap her wings a time or two, go do everything Zen Master Ken says. He has much wisdom to impart from his training in the Bowtie Dojo.

You can do this! And, if not, a $45.00/hour specialist can fix whatever you destroy.

"Mind like parachute - only work when open."
Charlie Chan


John

Dumb sounding question...but...is there anywhere that carb and choke cleaner SHOULDN'T go? obviously not to be taken internally by me personally, but is it a bad idea to clean the inside of the carb? the intake? Much to learn eh?

Paragon
Doesn't have $45/hr....especially not for one of the few things that is almost good enough...Can't bust it! (not in the good sense! )

Clean everything except the vacuum pots. Not all, but some cleaners can damage the rubber diaphrams. If you do get cleaner in them, just start the car and run it for about 20 or 30 minutes to COMPLETELY dry out the chemicals. It will be fine.

WARNING You may want to drive the car to dry them out! You could end up cruising and take up the entire rest of your day! You would not get anything else done!

Gosh, Ken. That would be horrible.!
You, know; as I think about it there may be a microscopic speck of dust on my polished Edelbrock Performer. I'm sure that it will take at least half a can of Gumout to definitely eradicate it. I'd probably have to drive all night to dry that baby out.

Aw, shucks! Memphis or Atlanta? So little time, so much tread left.

John