Quote Originally Posted by geezer101 View Post
Welcome to mightyram. To me it appears that someone has attempted to delete the auto choke mechanism from the carb (the auto chokes on these fail when there's either a coolant leak and the engine overheats or just from age/wear and tear). There are a couple of vacuum galleries and the choke butterfly shaft that are left behind when the water choke is removed and they will cause huge air leaks into the carb if not sealed up. This has to be the ugliest delete I've seen so far. Get another carb so you can have a working choke. You have the option of using a 32/36 Weber carb on your engine but it does require an adapter to seat it to your manifold. It is by far the most popular modification to these trucks and will make a world of difference to performance and fuel economy - http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...10-Weber-32-36
Ah an automatic choke. While I was waiting, I finished the rebuild and installed the carb looking like it does on the left (bondo scraped away, but still present inside the holes. The rebuild has left it running better than it has since I've owned it and the truck starts and warms up just fine without the choke, so I think I'm going to hold on to the mikuni for now and keep an eye out for a deal on the holley carb and adapter. I wish I had the budget to do that now but a $20 rebuild kit was much more in my price range. Thanks so much for the help, and for the warm welcome to the forum!