Was that the car that would stall when you took a left hand turn?
There’s choking and then there’s choking.
My mom could never get the hang of starting her 50s Zepher, so recruited me for that. She would handle the key and the gas and I would handle the manual carb’s manual choke.
Once I reached school age and was not available all the time, she would simply ask for help from our neighbours (fortunately our next door neighbour was a mechanic, his son was into hot-rodding, and a fellow a few doors up was into restoring antique cars). She was in the habit of shopping while leaving the car idling, and when necessary would ask a passer-by to work the choke.
She was absent minded, so if she was in a rush she would forget things, e.g. coat, purse, kids waiting to be picked up, pots on the stove about to catch on fire . . . .
One day after she had picked me up her Zepher died a few blocks from home. Whatever the problem was, it was not the choke, so she sent me off to get Harley, the gas station owner/mechanic. It was a half-hour walk for me, which must have been an eternity for my mom, for it was a hot day and we did not have air conditioning at home, so she hadn’t noticed that she was wearing a baby-doll negligee when she ran out the door upon realizing that she had forgotten to pick me up.
At the gas station Harley told me to climb into the wrecker and off we went to rescue my mom. For a little kid to get a ride in a wrecker is about as good as it gets. I was in heaven!
So was Harley once we arrived and he walked over to ask my mom what had happened. He started laughing and coughing and choking (everyone smoked in those days – and yes, it caught up with both of them) when he saw what she was wearing. That got her laughing and coughing and choking, which got me laughing despite my not having a clue as to why they were laughing.
That evening at dinner, my mom gave Harley’s bill to my dad and told him what had happened. They both darn near coughed their lungs out laughing, coughing and choking, so I got to laugh all over again with my mom and my dad, still not knowing why they were laughing, but since then I associated that Zephyr with laughter and my parents, so struggling with the choke never bothered me – it would just bring back a lovely family memory.
Anyone else remember using little lengths of garden hose slit up the side to hold the choke out the right amount?
I have driven a car with a carburetor under the hood and another one in the trunk
I can tell you from my Dad’s bitter experience that the 1974 Valiant was one such car. He rebuilt the carb several times trying to solve it, but that car was just ornery.
Citroen 2CV Sahara?
I learned to drive in a 1937 Chevy, and then drove my Dad’s 1936 Dodge for several years. As a 18 year old, my first car was a 1953 Chevy Bel Air. All with carbs. As a young man I rode a succession of 1960s and 1970s motorcycles - all with carbs.
I will say that when I first drove/rode vehicles with electronic ignition, I was amazed at how easily they started…especially motorcycles on cold mornings!
Heck, even my lawn mowers had carbs.