starting issue 69 nomad

howdy. I have a slight issue with my 69 chevelle nomad with 350.

It has a carb with manual choke, and the choke cable is not hooked up.

Starting is not an issue, but it does have a peculiarity: If it has set a while and gotten 'cold', it start right up. But, if the engine is still warm, I'll have to crank it about three seconds before it will fire.

Just an irritation really, I like my cars to crank immediately.

Also, the fuel guage does not work. Any suggestions on where to start diagnosing it? ( because the guage does not work, I keep the tank full so pulling the tank is an issue )

Safety issues not withstanding, there is something to be said for having the tank in the cab ( like my 64 C-10 ) for ease of access to sending unit.

It would be interesting to know wher the choke plate is when your starting the engine warm. The gas gauge could be sending unit ,but I'd check the gauge first then work to the rear maybe broken wire by tank or under carpet somwhere.

Isolate the wire coming from the fuel sender to the gauge. It should read +/- 40 ohms to ground when the tank is full and zero ohms when empty (in between will be 0 - 40 ohms). Does the gauge read "full" or "empty" all the time? Full would indicate that the sender is stuck and empty typically means that the sender is bad (open), the gauge is bad, or the wire between the sender and the gauge is bad.

The suggestion of a broken wire is probably a good one. You can take a length of #14 or #16 and bypass all the way to the sender unit and attach to the gauge and that will tell you if then wire is bad.

It shows pegged off the scale towards the full side.

A Chev gas gauge that reads right up like that means the tank isn't grounded.
When it doesn't start, are you giving it some throttle? That'll help if it's a minor flooding issue. If that doesn't do it, try pedaling the gas a bit. Might be not getting gas right away. What make of carb?

The carb has an edelbrock sticker, but has WEBER cast into its side. It's perched majestically upon a Holley street dominator manifold.

I'll try putting a grounding strap on the tank, that should be easy enough. the guage used to work intermittently.

[QUOTE=firebird77clone;339068]The carb has an edelbrock sticker, but has WEBER cast into its side. It's perched majestically upon a Holley street dominator manifold.QUOTE]

Edelbrock, Weber, Carter..... all the same if they're AFB's. Depending on the year, they're all the same on the inside.

The starting issue when hot could be the crappy gas we have now.

The starting issue could be a worn throttle shaft or base plate is worn. Cold the clearence isnt enough to cause a problen hot it is . When warm spray a small bit of carb cleaner on the shaft where it enters the casting plate if the idle changes the wear is to much and the shaft or base plate needs replacing.