<VV> FC van choke and Greenbrier weatherstrips.

[Jim Becker]

Your "plate held on by two screws" sounds like part of the choke control 
mechanism.  I pointed you to the picture in the shop manual so you might 
recognize the parts or at least the location where they were mounted.

In '61, the throttle cable originally came in at the side of the 
transmission.  Later models ran it through the firewall to pull directly on 
the cross shaft.  As the earlier style parts were discontinued, GM supplied 
a kit to convert the early vehicles.  That may be what is on yours.  Or 
maybe somebody pieced the equivalent together.

The " 'add-on' panel" is part of the Spyder dash.  As I recall, it 
originally held the wiper/washer switch and the cigarette lighter.  With all 
the additional gauges, there was no room for those items in the main panel.

The original '61 panels had the word "CHOKE" but DID NOT HAVE ANY OTHER 
HOLES FOR MOUNTING THE CHOKE CABLE.  The cable mounted below the dash.  I 
don't know how else to explain it.  Maybe somebody else can come up with 
different words but I have run out.  Please read this paragraph a second 
time, then a third.  If you still don't understand, have somebody read it to 
you.  This is the third time I have told you this and the second time I have 
told you to reread what I already said.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Hugo Miller
Sent: Monday, November 04, 2019 11:29 AM
To: Jim Becker
Cc: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re:  FC van choke and Greenbrier weatherstrips.

I just put a second pair of specs on and stared at it a bit harder. In
my book it shows a bracket in the front firewall for the choke cables.
This has four bolts or screws. At least I thought it did, but with a
second pair of specs on it might just have two bolts at the top. The
things at the bottom that look like bolts may not be bolts. On MY
firewall, I have a plate held on by two screws in about the right place.
It has a hole, through which goes a thin little pipe which looks like a
vacuum pipe. Also my throttle cable goes through a hole way up high in
the firewall, not underneath it like the book shows.
At the front of the car there are no holes in the dash, under it or
anywhere near it. It does have an 'add-on' panel under the dash to the
left of the steering column. This contains the wiper switch and what I
presume is a washer switch, although I have no washers.
The intriguing part is that my ORIGINAL dash (not the Spyder dash that
is fitted) has the word 'CHOKE' engraved in a line with the other
markings. But there is no hole or anything underneath the word CHOKE. If
it weren't so damn wet out there (this is England!) I would crawl
underneath and see if there is any evidence of any choke fittings.
Other than that, your last suggestion might be the most plausible!
Except that the door handles tally with the early type, and it has a
gear shifter that is bent like a stick of liquorice and goes back
horizontally through a vertical panel in the cab. I believe this is the
early type & the later ones went down through the floor? Who knows what
has happened over the past sixty years!


On 2019-11-04 17:43, Jim Becker wrote:
> OK, I should have said the word "CHOKE" was below the speedometer
> rather than at the bottom edge of the instrument panel.  The choke
> would still have been screwed to the bottom directly below it.  There
> should still be 2 screw holes there.
>
> THESE HOLES WILL NOT BE IN THE INSTRUMENT PANEL.  THEY ARE IN THE
> BODY, IN THE SAME PORTION THAT THE PANEL IS SCREWED TO.
>
> I am not aware of any Corvairs built in '61 without manual chokes.
> Either the two screw holes are below the instrument panel along with
> about three in the firewall, or somebody went to the trouble to fill
> them, or somebody jacked up the serial number plate and slid a
> different year body under it.
> __________________________