Hard to start cold

[macmac]

Well the order of madness is always electricals first... Always, unless compression is subject to suspision. Then fuel.

As a foreign car tech in my day I banged out a complete tune up in 15 minutes.

Went like: pull warmed up car in, drop oil drop filter yank valve cover yank plugs yank points and condenser, hand turn the engine twice and check and adjust valves as needed.

Install valve cover, oil drain plug oil filter and oil .

Do a comp test dry with the engine still warm, do another wet record and compare the figures.
Install points and condenser, set dwell, check the dist rotor and cap and replace if needed..

Install new plugs and check plug end clips. If they looked bad test them.
Install fuel filter, and air filters

Start engine check charging system and then carbs.. Out and done in 15 minutes or less...

Now then if there is a fuel problem it is time to dig into the carbs...

If i suspected a battery I wacked it with a real carbon core load tester, and if it failed the test I notifed the customer.

[faxxxy]

My choke has a catch in it. It will pull half way and feel like it is fully engaged, then I can give it some muscle and it will completely engage.

Even completely engaged it seems to need to turn over 4 or 5 times before it starts.

[macmac]

Try holding the throttle open before you pull the choke knob. Probably there is a 'step' on the cam at the throttle linkage.

4 to 5 beats of cranking isn't very long, less than 3 seconds I bet.

When you set the key to ON, and do nothing more than listen what do you hear?

[zoom45]

I think I finally found my hard to start problem. After adding the tensioner extenders and changing the fuel filter I must have pulled a line off the back of the carb. I reconnected it and will see how it does today. I don't know what that line does but it comes from over the top of the rear cylinder.

Zoom45

[zoom45]

I found a fix for my carbed Nomad being hard to start cold. Before I try to crank it up I just pump the throttle wide open about 3 times and it cranks soon as it turns over. Maybe something in the carb is seeping fuel when it sits a long time but it's running great and getting better gas mileage now so I don't want to change anything else.
Zoom45

[macmac]

I think the line off was the thing that was wrong. I have never seen first hand these carbs, but I am pretty sure there is no accel pump on the carb... So opening the throttle shouldn't do anything at all...

You are opening and closing the throttle plate, which when the engine is off is simply opening it and closing it..

That hose on the other hand has to be a vacuum device of some sort, and that would be leaning out any mix for the time the vac port the hose goes on is open to the air..

If this were a car and it had a carb, so long as the carbs were not Constant Velocity carbs like SU and Stromberg then opening the throttle plates would also move linkage to a accel pump.

But this carb IS a CV carb... The slide doesn't move up, or it shouldn't and if it did I wouldn't know how.

There is a idle circuit and it might be clogged slightly, and there is a en-richment valve which also might be clogged up slightly. The passageways tend to be very small, so a little smidgen of crud is all it takes.

Maybe by opening the throttle plate you are creating enough vibration to dislodge a crudling...