It seems my choke is staying on all of the time. My gas milage sucks. I looked at the choke yesterday after running it for about 20 minutes around town and the choke was still on. I think that this is the reason my truck is thumping going up some steep hills. How can I fix the choke? Or do I need to go get a new one?
1984 XLT 302, 2 BBL
Thanks,

Luke

 

I'll give this a stab, since nobody answered, but my choke experience is mostly on GM products. A choke is adjustable, usually there is a large disc on the side of the carb with some screws around the circumference of it. The disc has arrows on it that say something like "warmer" or "colder". You loosen the screws and turn the disc to adjust when the choke opens and closes. Also, on GMs for sure, there is a vacuum operated choke pull-off. If this goes bad, you will run very rich and gas foul the plugs. Not sure if Fords have these. Another thing is to check all vacuum lines and linkage that go to the choke. A broken vacuum line could cause the choke to stick. Sometimes all you need to do is spray choke cleaner all over the outside of the carb and move the linkage around to free it. One more thing: Do you have the heat riser tube in place that runs from the exhaust manifold to the intake on the air cleaner? Many times these fall off and people think they are not important, but they will help the vehicle warm up faster on a cold day, hence the choke will close earlier. Or people put on performance air filters and take this off entirely. These are on all vehicles, not just GM. I hope this helps, and if it's not applicable to Fords, well you can fix someone's Chevy now...