At 12:00 AM 11/14/01 -0800, Garner, Joseph P. wrote:
>....
>.... i discovered a mysterious white plastic part between my carb and the
>manifold, .... inside, and looped around the mixture pasageway is what
>looks like an induction heater coil .... the part has two spade terminals,
>the upper was connected to the +12V line, the lower to the induction coil.
>The other end of the coil would have been grounded against the carb ....
>any ideas? experience?
Uh, yup. There may be a little gadget on the side about the size of the
first joint on your finger where you found the spade terminals. That would
be a thermoststic switch (possibly under a little domed cover). When the
ambient temperature drops below freezing (or mabe as low as 20dF), the
thermostat closes the contact. When you go to start the car in such cold
weather you can switch on the key and wait for about half a minute for the
heater element to warm up, in which case the engine should fire up much
easier, as the heater is helping to warm the intake air to better vaporize
the fuel. Very shortly after then engine starts this device should warm up
enough to open the contact and turn off the heater. But don't bet the farm
on it actually working.
I had one of these on a then new '69 Austin America (don't ask), and it
also had a band heater wrapped around the top air chamber of the SU
carb. These two heaters combined drew more current and supplied more heat,
and it actually seemed to work quite well. Given the appropriate half
minute to heat up before cranking the engine, it was a very reliable winter
starter. Then one day the temperature dropped below 0dF, and the car did
indeed start as planned, but with the temperature that low the thermostatic
switch stayed closed for a very long time and appearantly burn itself up,
and the next time it wouldn't start. The dealer replaced the part under
warrantee, but a week later in sub-zero weather it did the same thing
again. After the third burnout it got to be Spring, and before it got
really cold again the warrantee had expired, and I don't think I ever
bothered to get it fixed again. If I had the same problem now I would
probably bypass the thermostatic switch and wire it to a heavy current
toggle switch or a relay, and include an indicator light to remind me to
turn it off.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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