Thanks Kentetsu for the lead on the FAQ. I had the idle mixture faq already, but I came across the vac leak faq while I was there. Turns out a previous owner decided after they broke off the carb side inlet to the EGR solenoid valve (the gray one) to patch it with liquid gasket and that finally failed.

How hard/expensive are these to replace?

Since it's part of all this emission crap and I don't have to meet emissions since the thing is 20+ years old, should I do the rat nest strip and slim down the carb?

Thanks for everyones help.

 

Start from the beginning. I decided I'd act like I hadn't done anything so far and treat it like the problem just started. So I got a new distributor cap and rotor (nope), new spark plug wires (nope), new spark plugs (BINGO). Thing ran like it was a randy teenager.

I'd checked the plugs for spark and they had it, but I guess not strong enough. I've tuned the carb and it runs nice and smooth.

Thanks for all your help.

 

Thank you for posting the solution to your problem. It is very rare that this happens.