Okay, let me give you a run-down of my typical experience with it each day just to make sure I'm not confusing. I'm dealing with 2 problems....
So I'll go out at say 9am to start it for the first time in the morning. I step on the gas pedal one time to prime the engine (otherwise it wont start) and turn it over. It will start up nice and clean and almost immediately die. I can kind of step on the gas pedal gently to try and keep it running, but if I depress the pedal too much it will die. So after it dies I'll pump the gas pedal one more time and turn it over and it usually fires up and stays running long enough for me to play with the pedal and find the sweet spot to keep it somewhat accelerated. If I give it about 3 or 4 minutes it will start to run on its own without any pedal. Usually after that I have to give it another 3 or 4 minutes to warm up otherwise as soon as I shift it into drive, it dies. So once I get past that point I can drive it as long as I'm cautious not to give it too much gas. If I do give it too much gas for the first 10 mins of driving or so, it feels like its loosing power, starts to cough and black smoke comes out the exhaust. I can back off of the pedal and it will come back to life.
The second problem is the rough idle when at a stop in drive. This problem doesn't show up until the engine is well warmed, especially when the weather is warm outside. When the engine is cold the problem doesn't seem to exist. I'll come up to a stop sign or stop light and everything goes perfect until I reach a stop. Within 10 seconds or so the engine slowly starts to loose rpm and begins to cough a little. It sounds like 1 or 2 pistons are missing. If I step on the gas to move, it will cough severely for less then a second and then pop to life and drive like normal.
Does that still sound like a choke issue? Someone told me I could test for vaccum leaks by spraying carb cleaner around. Have you heard of this???