Carb car fast idle device question

Quick question for the experts. I purchased a new bi metallic spring for my fast idle device for my 1977 308. It can be installed in either direction. Does anyone know, which direction this rotates when it warms up, clockwise or counterclockwise? Or does it matter which way it goes?


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I may try putting the new spring in the same orientation as whatever I find is in there. However two things. One is that it currently doesn’t work, so it may be wrong, and two I’ve learned to never trust that how I found something on an old car is how it should be. Based on the shape of the device being a cam, it seems it shouldn’t matter what way it rotates when warm as long as the orientation is correct when cold, it seems it should go to the smaller side of the cam wheel in either direction but I could be wrong with this if the wheel is not as symmetrical as it looks. I’ve looked in the manual and it has a good procedure on how to setup the fast idle device but doesn’t mention which way it should rotate.


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A previous owner had disconnected mine. It’s definitely more than just an emission device as I have a 77 pre emissions car. The manual states that upon start one should hold the RPM at 2000 for a few minutes until warm to help with proper oil pressure and lubrication. That is what I intended to set it back up to. Not to mention when cold, it only idles at 500 rpm making you have to two foot it out of the garage, which in my case is a bit difficult due to tight quarters. If the carbs would warm up quicker I wouldn’t really care. But it seems like since rebuilding the entire cooling system,it takes 10-12 minutes sitting in the garage before enough heat gets in them to idle at 1k rpm on their own. And if I let the car idle for 12 min in the garage I get a lecture from the wife about making the house smell since it is a pre car car lol.


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That is still pre emissions from a performance point of view in that you don’t have cats and you don’t have US spec cams. Those came in 1978. So when i mentioned pre emissions that’s what I meant. I believe the euro cars have the fast idle devices as well. In my opinion Webers without a fast idle device of some kind on any car are a bit of a pain on cold start unless you use the choke which I try to never use.


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The reason I don’t use the choke is that they have been known to be notoriously sticky and sometimes do not fully release when push the lever off. Resulting in driving around in an overly rich mixture. I have replaced the entire linkage, the cable, and rebuilt the carbs, so it should work ok but I’ve heard to many bad things to use it. Btw I did rebuild the fast idle device yesterday and after disassembly, cleaning, lubrication and two new springs it works really really well. With it working as intended it’s a great little device, but if it’s gummed up or broken I could understand why someone would disconnect it.


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