MG Car Repair: 1979 MGB - Starts with difficulty when engine is cold, zenith stromberg, stromberg carb

Question
Purchased my russet brown 1979 B last summer and have driven it nearly daily.
The Zenith carburetor has been a little bit of drag though especially since I cannot really get the automatic choke to work correctly and for most of the time my idle speed is too high (at about 1100 to 1300  rpm). I have tried nearly everything, cleaned the whole thing, airfilter is new and oil level is up but especially in the colder days now the car starts up with great difficulty. It's basically a drag for the starter motor every time I turn the key on the cold engine. I have tried with pushing the gas pedal through once or several times before starting but it does not improve start up performance, it almost seems it is not getting fuel for some time but then - Once it is running, everything is fine. And the warm engine starts up with no fuss at all.
Checking some of the MG club sites for help I find that some people have installed manual choke kits and removed the automatic one and some have decided to go with a single SU6 or a weber downdraft carb instead.

I am thankful for comments and greatly appreciate help on this.

Answer
Hi Andy,
Yes, the auto choke system on the Stromberg is short lived and that is why many have put the manual choke kit on or converted to some other carb.
On your choke system is a wax filled bulb that pushes on a pin and the wax filled bulb is what fails and is unavailable (as far as I know) I was able to extend the life for a short time by removing the wax bulb and putting a small BB in the tube that the pin is inserted into. this just extends the length of the pin thus makes it work a little longer until all of the wax has leaked out.

The least expensive correction is to install the manual choke kit. Basically the Zenith Stromberg carb works well but that auto choke is the weak point.

Howard