Starting Fluid

Just be sure to not load it with ether causing it to ether knock. A little sniff goes a long way. It is probably from sitting that just dries up fuel in the bowl. Needing ether, as others have said, is indicative of another problem.

 

Thanks James. I swear I was running that exact starting scenario through my head just this morning while driving to work. There's got to be a trick to cold starting this thing without using either starting fluid or an extra squirt of gas.

My brother once told me that he thought I was flooding the carb with gas and advised me to hold the accelerator pedal to the floor for 10 - 15 seconds and empty the bowl. Believe it or not this actually works but only in a case where the down time has been relatively short. As in a couple days. If it's been really long then no amount of pumping the pedal, or holding it to the floor, or spinning without the pedal or anything will work. Then one little squirt of gas and it'll fire.

Regarding the air cleaner...yes I have that small rectangular chrome air cleaner that weber sells for their carbs.

On the choke...it's electric. And best I can tell that means...when the key is in the "OFF" position no power is going to the choke so it's closed and "choking" the carb. As soon as the key is turned on the choke spring starts to heat up which opens the choke. The problem is that if it takes a lot of spinning over then with the key "ON" the choke opens and I really have no choke at all.

 

The Webber tends to empty of fuel much more quickly than the stock carb. I think the shorter height, more open air cleaner, and more heat conductive coupling to the manifold all play a part in this.
Throw an electric fuel pump on there and you won't have any reason to open the hood to get it started.

 

I think you're probably right. I appreciate the comments.