Noob needs some help...choke?

I just got my truck, its an 89 b2200 cab plus. I have a couple of problems. I have searched through other threads and I have an idea of the problems, I think.
First off, she has a weird powerband, like half throttle is the best position to accelerate from. Taking it down the road, I could not accelerate past about 45mph. Once i hit 4 gear, no acceleration at all. I heard that this could be caused by a clogged cat, so i gutted it.
After I gutted the downpipe cat, I put everything back together and fired it up, and it seemed a bit better. So I'm thinking that fixed it, but i gotta get the next part fixed before i can go down the road again....
My next or bigger issue has to do with the carb/choke. I realize that everyone is going to tell me to just get a weber, but thats not in the cards for me at the moment. I start the truck and have to keep the gas on the floor to keep it running, but it doesn't accelerate at all and runs really rough. I have found the choke wire (i think, as its the only wire in that spot) but it goes under the air box and doesn't seem long enough to hook up to the alternator like everyone has said in other threads. if i take the air cleaner cover off and hold the choke open it seems to help and then it will accelerate and run nice and smooth. After a few minutes of this i can let go and it all seems to work fine. If I hold it open with the cover on, it doesnt really help much. That choke wire doesnt seem like it can go all the way to the alternator and i havent found anywhere else to connect the sucker. The dude i got the truck from said the alternator was changed recently, but didnt know if maybe the choke wire had an entension on it to get it down there or what.

Now my plan is to eventually go with the weber and pacesetter setup, i just cant afford it at the moment. So please don't tell me that the weber is great and i should just do that because i want to i just dont have the exta paper for it now. So i know its abit long and some of my problems are in other threads, but i would appreciate a little help if i can get it. I will try to get some pics of the carb andwhat i think is the choke wire up tomorrow...

The plug that goes to the alternator is specific.And is long enough to reach.Now worst case add some wiring to it with some butt connectors and heat shrink and plug into alternator.As for lame pwr I would remove or prop up your air cleaner off the carb and clean thoroughly.I use brake cleaner soley on the OUTSIDE on the linkage and base area.Lube the linkage with graphite powder or liquid wrench penatrating fluid on the exterior moving parts.Sounds like maybe a blocked up egr valve maybe and mounted below the carb 3 ten mm bolts,one vac line,one elect conn.Remove this and clean the goop out with a tooth brush and use carb cleaner and blow out.You want the pintal(metal inside) to move up/down freely reinstall.The egr is not the problem but,would not hurt to freshen up and also where the charge air pipes conn to the air cleaner inside are filters that need to be changed out and I use just breather elements any big size cut to fit and replace.The filter housing has about 10 screws to remove to get at those.Tired as dirt after working today and suggesting some ideas to consider.If I am off the mark may others correct or add to my suggestions.I am leaning more carb linkage sticking or stuck and not moving freely.Hope this helps

A question after I thought on it earlier today awake.I know you gutted the convertor but our trucks also have a pre cat on them.In short just below the exhaust manifold is a large round metal jar size and inside it are screens that catch carbon and so forth.I would suggest dropping it down and remove it because if the screens inside are blocked up it will kill the power of the truck just like the normal convertor will.If you can get it out from underneath good luck,bc I also found no room with out exh manifold off the truck.I suggest brake cleaner to clean it out and let dry out.Using some compressed air helps as well.I went hostile on mine removed and soaked in muratic acid(be super carefull!!!) if u go this route.Use baking soda to neutralize the acid,with water let dry.My thoughts and figure yours is gummed up choking your power of engine.

thanks for your help, i took the egr off this morning, and boy was that sucker gummed up! had a heck of a lot of carbon gunk in there. i put it back on, but i had to head to work, i will try and get it fired up later on tonight and see if it helps.

Good deal just cleaning it after years of neglect helps regardless! Hope this helps and one step out of the way for sure.

I was really thinking that would help since it was so gunked up. I can't seem to keep he running now. My carb linkage is all good and everything movs very smoothly, and now that I got that coke wire hooked up it helped quite a bit before I jacked it all up with the egr. Not sure if I messed something up or not, but I am going to take it off again and make sure that everything is still good to go. If that pintle doesn't move freely and I can't free it up I'm just going to snag a new one off of ebay. EGR's are 230-250 at the parts store, but new ones are running between 80-100 on ebay. I called over to the local pink-n-pull, but the only thing with a mazda 2.2L they had some guy had just snagged the egr off of it yesterday. Hope i can get it all going so i can use this thing as a daily without sinkin too much into it. I just realzed after typing all of this that I probably made a bonehead mstake and after I got all of the carbon gunk out of it i sprayed it down with carb cleaner and I'm not sure that I got it all cleaned up before re-installing it....So I'm out to take it off again and clean it up again, I'm going to assume that there is no more gunk since I got so much out before, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get a little of the juice from the carb cleaner. We'll see if I'm a bonehead and I will keep you updated...

I've got two working EGR valves from B2200, PM me with offer if interested. Hint: considerably less than Ebay !!!


That's Permatex Aviation sealer on the EGR valve on the right (what I use with a previously-used EGR gasket), comes off readily with alcohol.

Well I took it off again, and it moves freely! Yay! not....this didn't fix my darn problem, the engine still won't accelerate. I'm pretty much at my wit's end on this one. I talked to my buddy that has a shop down the street and he is a mazda guy, so he's going to come over and take a look tomorrow, hopefully he's got some good insight, and he owes me a favor so it shouldnt cost me anything depending on what the issue is. Its weird to me, she fires right up now, but once i try to accelerate it either kills the engine, bogs it down until its really loping, or nothing at all happens. I checked the filters in the front of the air box where the 3 exhaust lines come in at, and all three seemed pretty clear, no dice there. I also pulled my plugs to check them, the guy I got the truck from told me they were new. What a liar he turned out to be, All four were pretty crappy looking, so 4 new ones went in....didn't help a whole lot, but a bit. The plug wires and the dist cap/rotor all look brand new. I'm just hoping that Darrell is going to beable to come up with something tomorrow. Thanks for your help guys!

You did check your ignition timing with a strobe light, correct? And verified that your vacuum advance was actually hooked up to the carb and working?

This link works.


And make sure that you don't have any vacuum leaks, as that would make your timing nuts, because of the vacuum advance.

Thanks for that link. I knew the gist of timing, but that definately breaks it down barney style. I'm going to recheck timing like that cause my eyesight, even with glasses I can't see that darn line. Most of my mechanical knowledge is helicopter turbine engines, so the basic piston engine stuff is usually french to me. I've got the rest of the week off of work so to work on this little project it is!