Lancia Beta Forum

Is there a trick to getting my Spider to idle when its cold.  When warmed up, idle is perfect. 

A couple of kicks of the loud pedal sees her start up every time but getting her to idle when cold is almost impossible.  I'm contemplating adding a choke cable but wondered if there was a trick to it.

Any ideas?

With twin 40s the accepted method is an occasional stab at the throttle to stop the engine reverting to inactivity.

If you add a choke cable I'd be inclined to set it up more like a hand throttle so you can set a fast idle  - in fact if your car is S1 or pre F/L you have provision for a hand throttle cable - don't know about F/L and later.

Thanks for that

I'm used to motorbikes with flatslide carbs that don't like to be touched at all when cold - although I solved this on the race bike by setting the idle speed to 3k! 

I'll try giving the loud pedal anoccassional poke and see how I go.

Mines a 1979 btw and I don't think there is a provision for a hand throttle cable?

Probably a Series 2 Facelift (F/L) model then.

I suspect the mount is still there on the throttle pedal. See if there's a mounting hole at the very top of the throttle pedal  - you might be able to rig something up.

I think the hand throttle and the recess for it disappeared with the brown plastic dash with the S2 F/L.

I'm sure it did - but was there an hole in the dash for the choke?

Do not be tempted to connect the cold start devices on your Webers as this is not like a conventional choke it pours fuel in for a rich start and 2 pumps of throttle make them redundant. The danger of bore washing your oil away is too high with these bits connected. The hand throttle is a good idea although DCOE's are really race carbs and have never been great until warm tending to spit until the engine is warmed up.

Eric