What is this?

[Dudeland]

It would be a cool nitrous activation switch....  you could be like no...no  the PO replaced the panel it.... it is just a choke and then ka-blam-o!!!

 

[grotflo]

When I added A/C to my car and switched to an electric choke carb, I removed that manual choke switch and put the A/C power knob in its place.  Totally stealth - it's not the standard Frigiking/Behr unit so the power switch is separate.

[Conserv]

20 hours ago, Rastadog said:

I’ve owned this car for 27 years. I don’t have a clue what it is and what it did. Late 73 tii. Thanks Alex

 

Are you sorry you waited 27 years to ask this question?  ?

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

[Rastadog]

Yup!

[golf73]

On 2/12/2018 at 3:00 PM, Rastadog said:

I’ve owned this car for 27 years. I don’t have a clue what it is and what it did. Late 73 tii. Thanks Alex

 

 

maybe a control for an auxilliary fan or A/C?

 

 

[Rastadog]

Hi, I’m still curious about this odd knob on my tii. I stumbled on this photo. It’s on a website called my2002tii.com. There is no contact info on the site. What could have been important enough to build a bracket for? Thanks Alex

[Preyupy]

You should be able to find the other end of the cable in the engine bay.  Is it possible this car had a carburetor on it some time in the last 45 years?  They could have also figured out a way to put a manual throttle cable in to hold a higher idle speed when it's cold.  That knob is from an aftermarket manual choke cable that was available  in the mid 70's, we sold a lot of them at BAP/GEON for the weber conversions and as replacements for English cars with SU carbs.   

[Rastadog]

Hi, There is no other end. The car is a tii. It came with documentation from its early life. Could the injection have been taken off and restored prior to my purchase, possible. There was no record of that or mentioned by PO who spent 11 years with the car, high school , college and medical school. When I bought the car there was a stub of a blue plastic tube sticking out of the firewall going to no where. It’s interesting that another tii has a similar setup.  Alex

[Conserv]

4 hours ago, Rastadog said:

Hi, I’m still curious about this odd knob on my tii. I stumbled on this photo. It’s on a website called my2002tii.com. There is no contact info on the site. What could have been important enough to build a bracket for? Thanks Alex

 

Alex,

 

I'm not exactly clear on "build a bracket".  Where?  The steering column cover on carbureted '02's came with a hole/slot in precisely the location of your knob, where the factory choke cable on single-barrel Solexes attached to a....choke knob.

 

As we mentioned before, that area was prime real estate for tii owners to add something or other.  And, yes, a previous owner could have carb'd a tii only to have a subsequent owner return it to fuel injection.

 

A lot can happen to a car in 45 years....

 

And most of it is forgotten, and not passed on to subsequent owners.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Conserv

[Rastadog]

Hi Steve, It may be the lighting. It looked different to me. I do remember people putting carbs on tii’s When they couldn’t dial in the pump, late eighties. But just maybe it did something else. I have one other mystery to ask about, body related. I need to get the car out of the garage first! Thanks Alex

[Mike Self]

When BMW switched from the manual choke 1 barrel carbs to the auto choke 2 barrel units, they changed the lower column housing (that previously held the choke cable) from diecast metal to plastic, since it didn't have to be strong enough to hold the choke cable any more.  I suspect (but will need confirmation from early '72 tii owners) that they began using the plastic housing with the first tii's.  Plastic is cheaper than metal.  

 

So, is the housing you have with the choke cable metal or plastic?  If the former, it's probably been replaced.  If plastic, it's original and was drilled for the cable housing.

 

mike

[Conserv]

11 minutes ago, Rastadog said:

Hi Steve, It may be the lighting. It looked different to me. I do remember people putting carbs on tii’s When they couldn’t dial in the pump, late eighties. But just maybe it did something else. I have one other mystery to ask about, body related. I need to get the car out of the garage first! Thanks Alex

 

Alex,

 

When I bought the '76, I immediately installed a pair of Marchal 850 series amber fog lights (photo).  But I lived in Philadelphia and I parallel parked often, which meant that the F-150 parked in front of me was likely to back into my fog lights -- no offense intended to F-150 owners, I have a 1961 F-350 and I'll be damned if I know where it's tow hitch is.  This provided me an "opportunity" -- "opportunity" when viewed from a temporal distance only -- to frequently "re-evaluate" my auxiliary lighting needs!

 

For a couple years, I ran a single Marchal 850 amber fog alongside a single Marchal 850 clear driving light.  Separate switches?  Of course.  What remains of this configuration?  Absolutely nothing but a single green push button light switch, that now serves a pair of Cibie 45 series driving lights...

 

Who could possibly guess this....factoid?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[Conserv]

23 minutes ago, mike said:

When BMW switched from the manual choke 1 barrel carbs to the auto choke 2 barrel units, they changed the lower column housing (that previously held the choke cable) from diecast metal to plastic, since it didn't have to be strong enough to hold the choke cable any more.  I suspect (but will need confirmation from early '72 tii owners) that they began using the plastic housing with the first tii's.  Plastic is cheaper than metal.  

 

So, is the housing you have with the choke cable metal or plastic?  If the former, it's probably been replaced.  If plastic, it's original and was drilled for the cable housing.

 

mike

 

Mike,

 

I believe there was a black rubber plug, round at one end, flat at the top, that slid into an elongated slot on the metal housings, in the choke knob location.  This served to "blank off" the choke knob location in, at least early, tii's.  My tii is in storage, and it's a 1973, so not particularly early, so I'm at a particular loss to date the use of the rubber-plug-in-metal-housing.

 

The one to two-barrel conversion for U.S.-spec cars was in spring 1972, if I recall.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Conserv

[Rastadog]

Mike, interesting. The one in my car is plastic. I have 3 of lower column housing. The metal ones came off tiis I parted years ago. The plastic one came with a bunch of parts later. I’ve wondered about the difference. One mystery solved! The first was an early 72, 0289. The second a 73 35xx. Mine is a late 73, 4501. The plastic one is date coded 72. The metal ones 71 and 72. I appreciate your response. I remember when your column was new. I enjoyed it. Alex

[arminyack]

its the placebo knob!

 

Edited February 24, 2018 by arminyack