Black Smoke?

I turned on the Comet 71 this morning and black smoke came out intermittently. It sound like she's not getting the proper fuel or something because she starts off like the little engine that could and as she begins to warm up then she sounds fine. What's the deal?

 

Black smoke indicates it is running rich, check your choke out see if plate is opening.

 

Yea, sounds like your choking that chicken
J/K...

 

SO what do I do? Turn the car on and pres on the gas and look for what?

 

Your choke should be closed when the engine is cold. As it warms up it gets looser and should open once it warms to operating temp. If the choke isn't adjusted correctly or is hanging up then it causes a rich condition. Usualy tho a faulty choke will cause poor driveability.

 

Is your choke manual or electric?

 

Is the choke on the carburetor? Accoding to Chilton's Electric Choke started in 1973 302 V8 equipped models, all 1974 California models and all 1975-77 models nationwide used an electronically assisted choke. Sooooo....I think since I have a 71 Comet I am assuming it's manual. This repair manual shown no pictures I hate that!! As you can tell I am still learning. Can I adjust the choke? What are the long term effects of a bad choke?

 

Several things can go wrong. Fouled plugs, rings getting washed (under extreme conditions), poor fuel econime.
You should have a cable pull knob if it's a manual choke. All chokes are on the carb. The linkages for elec. or manual are on pass side. The butterfly or plate that is at the top opening in the carb is the choke plate. It should move freely unless it's manual.
Look at the carb and see if it has a black circular object with a wire attached on the pass side of the carb, that would be elect.

 

It's manual. How do I adjust?

 

You open it ever so slightly once it is started then slowly, like 10-15 seconds intervals, you start opening it more and more. You get to know where or by how much by listening and paying attention to the way it runs and stumbles and stuff. It should be closed when cold and initialy cranking.

 

Do you have the pull knob somewhere inside at the dash area?

 

i belive it has a thermal choke. the choke is on the carb. take off the air cleaner housing, on the pass. side of the carb there will be round black plastic pice. if its a thermal choke there should be metal tube going from it to the exhast manifold. the choke opens the plate on top of the carb intake, and it opens the throtle plates a bit to raise the idle speed. you can adjust the time it takes the choke to open by rotateing the black cap on the side of the carb. you can also adjust the idle speed that the choke is set at by a screw that rides a steped cam that stops the throttle blades from closeing all the way.

 

I agree, this is most likely the kind the vehicle has.

 

that's what i'm thinking also...
...tube is stopped up or broken...

i've never seen a...pull choke...stock, on a Mav./Comet

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