electric choke switch

Hey guys,

I have a very general question...I am in the middle of a carb swap and need to find a feed for my electric choke. (now I know I can rob power form any switched source, but...) I had an old mercury zephyr with the 200I6...It had a vaccum operated switch that provided power for the choke...

Any ideas what this would be called, or where I could find one? The local auto parts stores think I am crazy!

Was this a stock piece or something that was rigged up maybe...I cant remeber really.

thanks

could always rig up a switch to a rear window defrost relay... this way in case you forget to turn it off, it would autmoatically kick off after 10 minutes

Most electric chokes are thermostatically controlled. As you said, all they need is ignition switched power. Why complicate it? KISS!

Bryce

Agree !

is that how they work?

I always just tee off the ignition wire from the coil... which only works if its not a points ignition. 90% of points ignitions step down voltage to about 9v to save the points and 9v won't heat up a choke properly.

I had a 73 Impala station wagon that I frequently used as an RV with an onboard charger, so I used the accessories with the car not running. For that, I rigged a relay that grounds via the oil pressure switch. No oil pressure, no power to the choke. That way the choke only gets power when the engine is running. I did the same little trick for an electric fuel pump. That would accomplish the same thing as your vacuum operated switch.

Or, even better, use a non-electric thermostatic coil choke. They're pretty easy to adapt, and far more accurate than an electric choke. Although an electric choke is perfectly fine, it uses time to determine how long the choke stays on, not engine temperature. I like using GM-style divorced chokes because they are dirt simple to adapt to nearly anything. There is a little coil box that mounts on the intake, then you can make a linkage out of a coat hanger to actuate any choke. Super simple, accurate, and it sets the fuel enrichment based on actual engine temperature.

Plus, being an engineer, it fits my simple-is-better mindset.

Well since I wrote the last post I found the original coke wire in the harness...it is an old jeep cj by the way. Comes off the oil pressure sending unit as mentioned above...

Thanks guys!