Eureka! It's amazing what happens when everything (well, almost everything) is in place. To make a long story short, I bought a new carburetor. I was pretty tired of all the coughing, spitting and everything else that goes along with an old carb that needed more than just a rebuild kit. Stock carb was $170 plus $75 core charge. Before installing, I removed every single vacuum and vent hose and threw them in the trash, replaced the PCV valve, installed new spark plugs and a new gas filter. I then installed the new carb and, using the diagram under the hood, re-did every vacuum hose with new hose and new fittings. It seems the diagram I downloaded that professed to be for my make, model and motor were inaccurate. I figure the one under the hood is going to be right, even though it's small and hard to read. I then found, at a Jeep swap meet here in town, a K&N air filter (they don't make an intake system for my motor, just the filter), and an electric fan. Once everything was installed, I cranked her about 3 or 4 turns, enough to fill the carb with fuel, and she started up fine and runs as smooth as my sweetheart's behind. I still need to put in the smog pump, which was absent when I bought it. Still evaluating how I'm going to do that, since the bracket is gone. It is such a pleasure to drive when everything works properly. After a short down stint when I had to replace a seriously leaking clutch slave cylinder (a $20 part), I am in heaven. Now if I could only get a little more horsepower. The 4-banger is really not up to the 31" tires, but for now I'm good with it. A little too much play in the gearshift for my comfort, so I'll be pulling the plate off to take a look at how I can tighten things up there. Then I'll be replacing the entire dash so I can cut new holes for all new gauges and switches, along with a couple of extra ones. I'm going to eliminate the dash glove box entirely, since I have a locking steel one in the console.
