And the culprit was....
The Battery!!!
With the carrier consistantly running at idle but dieing as you try to step on the gas, I called the mechanic who got my carrier running. He was gracious enough to do some head scratchin' with me over the phone at no charge.
He explained that the old flathead cutout on the generator puts the battery into play as part of the voltage stabilizer circuit in a modern car.
He said that if the battery had a bad cell, and was putting out low voltage and not charging properly, it would draw current from the ignition path.
Although I had just recharged the year old battery again to where the green "full charge" light was on at the charger, the lights dimmed quickly and the vehicle ran as I described.
So, we went out and got a new 6VDC battery, installed it, and it runs! Runs without any of the previous problems.
We shut it down for the night and tried again today and it started fine. Then went out and tore up my side yard driving the carrier. After 30 min of runtime, we could not duplicate the problem.
Keep in mind, the laast time I had shut the carrier off was with it consistantly running badly, the only thing done different was to replace the battery.
I still have the rotor cap, and points in the mail. I will keep them as spares and will take them with us to the field tactical. If the carrier acts up again, I will replace those.
Ok, this is going to be a "one for the books" war story whenever engine probles arise on a carrier.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond with great suggestions!
Cheers
Jim
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