Breakthrough!
I've got the week off so I decided I'd set to work early on this clunker.
I thoroughly inspected everything I could see...my first observation was the air hose (I think that's what it is...big black bulky thing) was not connected securely. It's O-clamp had come loose so it was barely even up against where it should have been fastened. It was also very loose at a small port lower down the hose. I tightened up both connections. It seemed to stay running slightly longer than before...but still died pretty quickly.
My second observation was that the cable connected to the throttle thingy? (looks like this
Click Here bottom picture) But, really only the gold part on the bottom picture looks almost identical. Anyway...the cable connected to that gold part was wicked slack. It seems like some plastic mounting clamp snapped at some point causing this...so I connected the wire (before it turns into the silver exposed cable) securely to the mount in front of that gold part. (Used a zip-tie so it's not only temporary....but pretty ghetto too!)
Anyway...it started and stayed started. I haven't dared taking it out of the driveway yet. In fact I haven't even tried putting it in gear..it still runs pretty rough, but it didn't stall.
Any thoughts? Did I solve the initial problem? Should I keep searching for something else?
(Note: As I was looking and trying this stuff...I was trying to start the car periodically too....wouldn't stay running for more than about 3 seconds until I did all this and then tried it about 4 times straight....then it turned over and stayed idling)