I thought you would be curious as to what the final outcome was to get the car to run right. Ended up being a big list, good example of what can go wrong with a car that sits as long as this one did.

1.Fuel pump. Seals were shot, seems to have actually leaked a bit of gas in to the block, discovered it when I pulled the distributor after it had run, incredible smell. I had changed the oil when I first got it and had not smelled it then. So, new fuel pump, flushed out the oil.
2. Bulkhead connectors were melted In several places. Replaced all the engine bay harnesses, replaced the bulkhead connector assembly, but stayed with the dash harness as it seemed OK after a couple of repairs.
3. Flaky ignition switch, replaced, rebuilt the column while there. The wires had been previously spliced, not very well.
4. Rebuilt the carb, it was sort of OK but remarkable amount of filth in the carb.
5. Since I was replacing harnesses, I swapped it over to Mopar Electronic Ignition. I converted the existing distributor to be an electronic ignition unit, came out great, used the FBO limiting plate to control the factory advance curve, the distributor was full of old grease gunk and dirt. Along the way, I ditched the old solenoid driven vacuum advance for a normal unit. Swapped the plug wires while at it, old ones seemed pretty soft and floppy.

This all on top of a brake system rebuild (bad booster, rebuilt by the RamMan) and a replaced water pump with a bad seal (flushed cooling sytem). Next up is probably transmission...it shifts well and with authority, but the kick down isn’t really happening like it should (it starts in 1st as appropriate from a stop, shifts up well (maybe a little quick in spite of repeated linkage adjustments, but doesn’t kick down from 3rd to 2nd when punched). I am sure the throttle cable is pulling the carb all the way open, I had to swap it as the old one was too long and was interfering with the kick down linkage. I have not yet dropped the pan, fluid seems clean, but who knows what the filter and pan look like. The brake fluid was literally mud.

So, other than the kick down that I mentioned, the car is running great now. Swap enough parts and sooner or later it will work I guess.

Actually a great series of projects when stuck at home in this Covid mess!