Has anyone fitted a manual choke conversion to their E3 ?. My automatic choke does work but I still prefer manual control. We used to fit a lot of these to cars in the 80's/90's , typically VWs and Fords. As long as it can be converted back again to original I would like to see if it can be done. I guess there are universal kits available ?
So I was recently was faced with the same dilemma. My chokes were not functioning and it was miserable at cold start. I was thinking of doing the same thing as I preferred the manual on the older 2002's that I owned, simple, easy, can adjust to your liking. But it is a little bit more of a pain I heard with the dual carbs.
Are you running Zenith's or Weber's first of all? If Original Zenith's, all I did was go to a pick and pull and got very lucky I will admit and found an unmolested complete set with linkage and manifold's for $50. One of my carburetors had the bad choke, it was pretty apparent when pulled apart it was not good anymore. I can't exactly say what the givaway was but they looked very worn and the coil was badly corroded. This happens I heard in the warmer climates when owners run distilled water more than anti-freeze in the motor. We swapped one of the chokes from the set I pulled off the donor set and it worked like a charm. Starts right up and as the temperature rises, the chokes do their job. One thing I will pass along as I am not a mechanic, nor am I a tuner, but the person that did tune these and he is one of the best in the country wrote me this, "Cold start/run okay? Didn't get to fully tweak the cold idle." So, without even tweaking the cold idle, it starts and runs amazing. Like night and day. It may make more of a difference to dial it in completely if you live in a colder climate than Southern Cal (And I just noticed you are in UK so that tweak will obviously make a difference and I'm not sure how to "tweak" them. I'm sure somebody on here knows, maybe just be a matter of loosening or tightening a screw. So, I hope what I said helps, if I am wrong technically with anything I said please chime in one of you by all means, I don't want to give out false info, this was just my experience lately.