Carb question - cold idle

[82SleekCraft]

Hi all,
Sorry for the elementary question. I'm not a carb expert. Subject is a 4-barrel Holley on a 460 BBF. Boat has a stick for both throttle and direction (no foot pedal). One stick controls both the throttle linkage and the reverse bucket.
I had a problem with idling with a cold engine. Cold engine would die if I put the stick in the neutral position. Now that I've monkeyed with the cold idle screw, the throttle linkage will not return far enough to hook into the throttle cable with a cold engine. This would prevent me from going into reverse as the cable would first try to pull back the linkage past the resting position on a cold engine.
In a car setup, something like this would just add some slack to the accelerator cable while the engine is cold. But since the throttle cable on the boat setup is ridgid, I can't see how this would work. In my setup, the cable pushes the linkage when throttle is opened.
Your help is appreciated.
[ June 18, 2003, 10:12 PM: Message edited by: 82SleekCraft ]

[DUCKY]

The ends on the cables should be adjustable. Set the throttle cable up so it has no load on it (is easily removable from it's locating pin in the control box, or the bolt or ball stud on the carb) when the shift handle is in neutral.

[kp216]

82SleekCraft - I had the same similar problem when I installed my new intake and Holley carb. The ball and stud fitting at the carb would not screw onto the cable end far enough to allow the carb to idle properly.
I cut some of the threads off to shorten the threaded portion of the cable and then screwed the ball and stud back on. Works fine now.
[ June 19, 2003, 04:14 AM: Message edited by: kp216 ]

[82SleekCraft]

The problem is that the cold idle resting position of the linkage is different than the resting position when warmed up. If I set the cable so that I can attach it when it's cold, then, my warm idle would be so high. How can I set it up so that it idles at two different RPMs?
[ June 19, 2003, 01:41 PM: Message edited by: 82SleekCraft ]

[DUCKY]

What's up, you actually have a choke on the thing with a fast idle? (rare for a jet boat) There should be a a screw over on the choke side of the carb for adjusting the fast idle (choke idle). set it for no increase, or same as warm, as you don't need it. If you like having a choke, all you need is the enrichment (butterfly),which makes it easier to start, but not the fast idle. If you want it to idle faster while warming up, just use the throttle stick.