Choke woes, either high idle or no start

[phj]

Hi all,

I'm almost finished bringing my '80 Honda CB400T Hawk to riding status. Replaced battery, headlight, front signals, some fuses; cleaned carbs; repainted.

When I received it, it was hard to start. Had to kick it into submission and the choke plunger would not stay out.

I've since tightened up the choke plunger friction nut and reclamped it towards the carbs (after cleaning the carbs).

Problem #1: I can't remember exactly how the clamp is supposed to be positioned on the bottom of the cable: on the metal cylinder? On the indented part of it? And I have a rubber boot on the carb end of it; this boot just slides around and doesn't seem to even fit over the indented end of the metal cylinder.

Problem #2: High idle or no start problem: The only way I can get the bike to start cold is to unclamp the cable (tank off) and yank on the cable. As the bike warms up I let the cable go and clamp it down at the point where the choke plate/linkage/butterfly/whatever is completely closed at the carb and no rise in idle is happening. Then I have a nice idle at 1200 +- 100rpm.

While the bike starts right up when hot using this setup, it won't start cold unless I go through the rigamarole again.

If I clamp the cable in a position so that it will start cold next time, then once the bike warms up and I turn off the choke, the idle falls at 2500rpm. The choke plate is definitely still open at the carb.

It almost seems like the cable is wrong for the bike. I seem to need a larger variance in cable length between choke-on and choke-off. I wouldn't be surprised if the previous owners did something funky with aftermarket parts.

Help?

Patricia