NormK,
Chokes are something that gets overlooked by techs if they get in a rut or are inexperience in this area. As for chokes that is something that gives me problems enough that I always check when starting problem arise.
Some equipment even modified chokes vanes are needed to operate properly. Tecumseh engines here were ones that required holes to soldered or blazed up to increase choking. I right now have a generator that refuses to start when it is 40F or below that I need to pull the vane and seal one of the two holes and that one is a Nikki single barrel carburetor. I had 650 Subaru engine on UTV that I had to seal one the holes up on too.
Now it was different story on a leaf blower I work on a couple years ago. Initially I started with a bad main nozzle check valve. So I replaced the carburetor with the OEM supplied replacement (not an aftermarket). Well the carburetor flooded the engine on the very first hit. When comparing the old to new I notice quite bit in the choke vanes so I tried the old vane. I couldn't even start the engine on full choke but at least it didn't flood the engine. So when I knew I had problem with the vane I started enlarging the new vane's air bleed hole. When I got halfway between the two original hole sizes it started working perfectly. One only the customer has since was that his daughter backed over the blower. Luckily she only broke the carburetor intake mount.
Just shows that sometimes we got to modify an equipment setup to get to work as. It just like the way I got re-jet carburetors to stop them from surging even after the engine are warm up.
