89 LX A20A1 stalling at idle suddenly

[tristanpark]

Hey guys, first post here.
Picked up a pretty clean little 89 LX a few weeks ago for $1800, 98,000 miles, 5 speed manual, all OEM, beautiful interior.

But there's a gremlin living in that ancient vacuum hose rats nest of an engine - recently it started stalling every time it goes to normal idle (stalls after dipping below 1k rpms ish). For 2 weeks it never had this issue, then one time it stalled at a stop sign and it's been doing it ever since.

The car on cold start has no issues starting and the choke let's it rev up and rich just fine. It's once it's warmed a bit and I tap the gas that the choke drops off and the car stalls.

So far here's what I've tried
- Tried spraying carb cleaner around the vacuum lines to see if idle raises. No obvious leaks, and I tried to be thorough
-pulled air filter and inspected vacuum lines under there, again nothing obvious
-cleaned out the pcv, it's functioning as expected
-Sprayed carb cleaner into the carb while the engine was cold start idling, no change after settling
-tried turning the screw on top of the carb counter clockwise, no effect
-inspected fuel pump and filter, looks like it's been replaced and it otherwise seems to not be fuel related as when cruising I can full throttle it and it feels normal
-air filter looks pretty new too. Also new spark wires (haven't checked plugs yet but will today)
-in the process of replacing the O2 sensor but it's stupid rusted on there so in letting it soak in pb blaster

I'm running out of ideas!! I'm going to AutoZone to buy new spark plugs and an O2 socket wrench but if anyone else has any other things I should check please let me know!! This is stupid annoying.

Edit: I should mention, no dash lights. If I lightly hold the gas and idle it, it will sometimes hold on for a second but runs extremely rough

[ShiRen]

Did you try raising the idle

[tristanpark]

Had it down for about a week as I did timing belt, seals, lots of little tuneups etc. Got it back together yesterday and took it on a test drive - went perfectly fine and I thought I'd fixed it. A friend comes by unexpectedly and I go out barefoot to give him a spin around the block.

Lol. The thing died a half mile from home. Had to push it a couple.hundred feet out of the street, barefoot. POS.

Anyway, I tried jumping it, changing spark plugs and starter fluid, nothing started it. Then I got a jerry can and threw 5 gallons into it. Started without a second thought! Apparently my gas gauge is way off. It was reading just under half a tank, and the fuel pump was only intermittently picking up fuel.

Anyway, haven't investigated that, but if anyone has the same issue after recently buying their carbed 3g... Check for vacuum leaks first and then gas.

[Oldblueaccord]

The ole outta gas got you.

Thats probably why you got such a deal on it! Good job!

[Dr_Snooz]

Hey, at least it was an easy fix!