Choke free-play

[PatrickDoss]

My choke cable broke, so I had to replace it.  While I had it off, I thought about how all Valks have too much free-play in the lever, yet there's no real adjustment.  But when screwing the new cable back in to the switch housing, I realized that if I didn't screw it ALL the way in like the old one was, that would effectively adjust it the way I needed it.  So, I only screwed it about half-way into the switch housing, then hooked up the other end without snaking it all the way through the nooks and crannies so I could test it and adjust if necessary.  I got lucky, and it was just right where I stopped it, so I routed it correctly and finished the install.  I now have just the right amount of free-play in the lever before I get choke actuation, instead of pushing the lever half-way down before I get even a little actuation.  So, if you've got your switch housing off, or you're replacing the cable, you might try adjusting how far it's screwed into the housing to take some of the slack out of your lever.

[HOZ]

As they say "learn something new every day" I have noticed the same thing and now I can fix it thanks to you. Thanks for the tip.

[Wildman]

I have had my choke cable set for minimum play for a couple of years.
I went through two cables before eliminating much of the slack.
I believe that it is the excess slack that lead to the cable failures.
The cable fails right at the cable end from flexing back and forth too much.

When the excess slack is eliminated the choke no longer twists far enough to detents at full choke and will tend to slowly back itself off. This cable has lasted twice as long as the ones with standard slack settings.

[Ricky-D]

Keeping in tune with my oft mentioned praise of the completeness of Honda engineering I would think that the free play that is present in the choke cable is Honda's attempt to insure that the individual enrichment valves on each carburetor are fully seated when the choke is off.

Do you ever lubricate those little valve stems?

An earlier thread mentioned the fact that the valve base on occasion, loosens up. Do you ever check them for tightness?

I consider myself fairly anal with regard to how I think things should be on my Valkyrie and I never thought about the free play of the choke cable.  I have never had a problem with the cable and use it every time I start the motor with exception, when the motor is warm.

Failure to fully install the choke cable as a means to remove the slack in the inner cable to me is not a good recommendation. Seems like I saw an adjuster the last time I had the cover off, but I can't say for sure.  Expediency is not a good enough reason to "jury rig".

Just sayin'

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