Carb problem? (stall)

In the mornings, when I go and start the Jeep, I have to have my foot in the pedal for a good 5 minutes in order for it to be warm enough to run on its own. It has been a temp of 30 degrees the past few days, but this is after I had the carb rebuilt. Also, every so often, I pull up to a stop sign and I sputter and die. I then get out, put the end of a screw driver in the carb, and then it fires up after a few cranks. Almost seems as though it floods when this happens. (never have heard of an engine flooding after running fine for 15 minutes.)

I didn't spend any money on labor for the rebuild and was hoping for this carb to last a little longer so I could get a weber or something.

My question is would this problem be the carb (choke?), or would it be something else. I have replaced the fuel pump (2rd one in 1 week because of defect on 1st).

Thanks a lot!
85Chief

Btw- this is a 85 Cherokee with the rochester 2 bbl. It was sitting on a 2.8, but now a 3.4.

Couple of things to check:

Make sure the choke pull-off is working. Vacuum controlled and and should open the choke valve enough for the engine to idle as soon as the engine starts. The vacuum diapragm commonly develops a hole and doesn't work.

The needle valve controlling the flow of fuel into the float bowl may be dirty, worn, mis-adjusted or stuck open allowing too much fuel in. This will allow fuel to overflow the bowl and flood the manifold, but usually all the time, not just when cold.

Suggest you remove the carburetor, disassemble and get everything squeeky clean, then reassemble paying great attention to all adjustments, ensuring all check balls and valves are properly installed, and making sure you use the correct gaskets. (You did save the original gaskets to compare too, right?) Some kits come with a variety of gaskets for slightly different applications that are not interchangeable.

One other thing - your Jeep came equipped with an air cleaner that had a large hose going to the exhaust manifold to bring pre-heated air into the carb. If that has been removed, and the right combination of air temp and humidity exist, you will get ice on the throttle valve until the engine warms up. That will also cause a poor idle and flooding.

HTH

Thanks! I will try and look at those things soon

85Chief

I Don't know about the 85 but I have a 86 Cherokee with the 2.8 (with a rod trough the block) and the choke is electric and not vacuum actuated. Maybe they where Vacuum on the 85 model.

The most likely problem is with the automatic choke. There is a chronic problem with them after they get about 10 years old. The automatic choke works by having a bimetal coil spring in it similar to the one in your thermostat in your house. First make sure that the choke butterfly plate in the carb moves back and forth freely. The choke is heated by a resistor that is powered when the key is turned on. There is a single electrical connection on the choke housing where a push on terminal provides the power. The problem tends to be that the other side of the circuit is provided by the retaining ring that holds the choke on the housing. It is supposed to make contact with a tab comming from the inside of the choke. With time the contact simply corrodes. I took a wire brush to the tab and the ring to clean them up and then soldered them together to make the circuit failsafe. I've seen probably a dozen vehicles with exactly the same problem.

Hope this helps.

I think Old_Man nailed it. The fact that you start it after stalling by sticking a screwdriver down its throat says carburetor -- specifically, sticking choke. If Tom's fix doesn't work, see if you can just rig it to a manual choke cable. When I was a kid you could still buy manual choke conversions, but these days you'll probably have to use a lawn mower throttle cable.