3910, The electric choke set up (or called a bystarter) is supposed to allow a richer mixture of fuel at start up by opening a passageway in the carburetor. The electric operator has a heating element that as it warms up, it closes this passage bringing the fuel mixture back to normal. I have to agree, the electric chokes (bystarter) on these carbs just don't seem to work very well for some reason. John over at Raceway has a manual choke carb replacement he was doing some testing on. There was a lot of info a while back on this issue. Instead of a sledge hammer, I installed a primer kit. Haven't had a problem down to 10 degrees. Below that I sit inside by the fire. I would talk to John after the holliday and see what he has come up with. Primer kits are used on a lot of modified atvs, snowmobiles etc because they usually remove the choke butterfly valve completely to acheive max air flow. If your handy, installing a primer should be a snap (obviously keep those fuel lines away from the exhaust etc). Hope this helps.