I'm taking Dave Swingle's suggestion when starting this thread. This shall be the new home for the odd adventures of Sparky the AutoCarb -- or, rather, its owner -- namely, me.
First: I've not been driving the car regularly because it has a refrigerant leak in the evaporator which causes the a/c system to lose all refrigerant two days after a full charge. I am short of cash right now and so I thought perhaps before buying a new evaporator I would remove the current one, pinpoint the leak, and see if it could be repaired with e.g. JB Weld.
Second: It might be time for a new alternator. My current one (Houston's) has started to drop its output after warm-up. When I first start the engine, the volt gauge (verified accurate) reads about 14v, but even with no accessories on, it drops to 13v after the engine warms up.
Farrar