LUVTruck.com

Greetings everyone,

I have a '79 Luv which ran "ok" since I got it back in May. But recently, morning temperatures have been about 24F/-4C and I can't get the engine started in the morning at all. I'm not sure what to do...is there a trick to it? Or something mechanical I need to look into? I can get it started in the middle of the day when it's warmer out, but it can be difficult to get started and once it does roar to life there is a bit of blue smoke coming from the exhaust for about 10 seconds or so.

Edit: So I talked to a mechanic over the phone and he said my choke might be off, so I'll take a look at that and see if I can get the choke lined up. Hopefully that helps...

Your starting issue isn't identical to mine, but if you've got the auto choke on your carb, you might try checking for power to the choke before getting too deep into anything. I swapped mine with a new one, and had the same issue. Turns out the wire had gotten a little too close to my exhaust manifold, but never quite broke through all the way, giving me an intermittent starting problem that was predominately temperature-dependent. After I changed the wire, I found that there was yet another intermittent interruption at the fuse block.

tl:dr - if it's the auto choke, maybe it's power supply, not a tuning problem

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75 Mikado G180/4sp Desert Tortoise

One other idea, if you still have the points style ignition, and/or more importantly if there is a resistor on the ignition coil, make sure that the coil resistor bypass relay 1) is installed and 2) functions properly. If it does not, I found on mine that the voltage at the coil dropped down to about 3-4 volts. My LUV never started in the cold easily at all. Then I saw that the relay was missing and when i touched a jumper wire from the battery direct to the coil on start up my starting issues were gone. Installed a relay and the issue was over.

Both sound like worthy tips, I'll post an update if I get it working or not...hopefully it's something simple