I've recently taken my carb apart to clean it (sugar in petrol I think) and now the choke won't go fully off. It will if I push it by hand, but not by pushing the control cable home.



I've had this problem before but now it's annoyingly bad. In the above photo, how tight should that big bolt be that the choke part hinges on? When manually turning that part normally operated by cable I can feel much graunching and resistance in there, no wonder the cable won't push it back fully.

That's 3 in one oil by the way not a leaky carb, I've tried everything I can to free it off but it seems as though it could be bent or something?

i had some thing similar to this, whip the top of the carb off again and re position the choke

Old-Nail,
that bolt should be fully tightened, in fact I think that it had some thread lock applied at the factory.
There are a couple of alternative reasons why the choke operation may be poor.

First up is that the cable has been damaged where it's rubbed against the underside of the frame on which the air filter sits.
That's a design fault by Citroen, which in many cases has resulted in the outer sleeve being fretted through.
If it's not too late, my solution is either to angle grind the air filter carrier to give clearance for the cable, making sure that any contact made is with a plastic part of the air filter box or alternatively, to bend down the bracket on the carb to which the cable is attached.
A few taps with a small hammer will sort that out...

When you took the carb apart, did you remove the bolt on which the fast idle cam pivots?
If so, did you make sure that the spring and ball bearing you found behind the cam went back into place?

If it's neither of the above, how does the cable behave when it's disconnected from the carb?
It may be too late for that cable, although removing it from the outer sleeve, cleaning and oiling it sometimes works.

ken
( p.s. I hope that Jubilee clip on the rubber hose 'twixt carb and air filter isn't too tight.
That can be a quick way to shorten the life of the hose. )

Ken the cable is a good 'un as I put the best one of several that I had back on when I rebuilt it, it's not chafing on anything and it slides easily when not connected.

When I took the top off the carb I just lifted the lid so to speak, I didn't remove anything else. The feeling the choke bit gives when moving it by hand is as if it has been bent or is otherwise catching on something for the last centimetre or so of it's movement. The resistance can be clearly felt.

The hose clip probably is too tight, as I only seem able to tighten things to two settings which are 'very tight' and "oh bollocks I've stripped it".

Old-Nail,
in that case, all I can suggest is that you undo the bolt and check that there's no corrosion hindering the movement of the fast idle cam.
Watch out for that small ball bearing, which will inevitably try to escape...

When it's working correctly, the cam should move with light finger pressure and the ball bearing should 'click' into place into a drilling in the cam, right at the forward end of its travel.

Almost forgot, if you put an open ended 8mm spanner onto the inner part of the clamp for the choke cable as you tighten the securing bolt, it'll prevent the choke cable from being bent around.

ken

Righty-Ho, that's my job for the weekend.

Without wanting to change subject too much, does anyone know where the 5mm ball bearing and spring go in the idle setup? I found both in a crevice in the engine bay when removing the carb.

Good question, as that's where mine will probably end up! Can someone talk us through it please?

please, we need answers!

the other question too is that how on earth have I done around 1100 miles without it since it felt out? And how the f*** has a tiny ball bearing and spring not just gone straight down the drain at the side of the road

Next time I want to retrieve something that gets dropped it will be sod's law that it'll roll down the side of the engine and bounce into a dog's eyeball or something, never to be seen again, typical...

One of these in close proximity to the location of the bearing & spring as you undo the bolt?
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