loose choke lever

[WrenchDad]

Hey guys got a Question for you, We have a Bird Thunderbird with a HS40 on it. It runs fine but while riding on a bumpy surface or if it hits a bump the choke lever vibrates or gets nocked into the on position, then the engine stalls out. The spring that goes in the notch is in tact but the whole lever seems loose on the rivit.
My question is ..... Is there any way to tighten the lever or do something to it to keep this from happening. Most of you guys have been doing this a lot longer than I have so I figured you may have seen this before and have some good suggestions.
Thanks

 

[The Restore Kid]

Yeah, they get wobbly on the shaft. That shouldn't cause you TOO much grief as long as it isn't stripped out..

The problem is your little spring. The best way to do it I guess is to take the butterfly off from the shaft, then you can take it out of the carb, then kink that spring inwards towards the hole some, then reassemble it all...

But you can probably rotate the choke arm to wherever it gives you the most amount of slop, then just grab the spring with a pair of needle nose pliers, right down low as you can get ahold of it, and give a rotating twisting action on the spring, so it's tipped towards the choke arm, and puts more pressure against it..

Just bend it a little bit though. Don't go over board, you jut need like a 2 degree kink, to send the top over into the choke arm lever a little harder..

 

[Mark G]

I've run into this also. Sometimes the lever itself gets loose, at the top where it mates to the shaft. Usually this can be fixed by taking the shaft/lever out of the carb, then put it in a vice (you have to be careful not to squeeze to hard on the shaft, it's brass so it can mark up easily). Now take a drift and bang it on top of the shaft, where it sticks through the lever. This will help "mushroom" the top of the shaft, making it a tighter fit on the lever. I can get you pics if you need:thumbsup:

 

[WrenchDad]

Thanks for the help, I looked at it a little closer and every thing works correctly (shaft not stripped or lever loose) I thing the spring adjustment will do the trick . It looks like it just needed more tention to hold it in place. I thought the problem was more complex than that and didnt want to start tearing things apart with out getting some advice first.
Thanks again.

 

[The Restore Kid]

Nah.. It's a spring drilled to land 1/2 round perfect into the three or four little 1/2 round cups in the arm, 1/2 inch above the body of the carb... It just stretches and wiggles the spring until it finally starts to take on an outward lean..