Up date - With the cure...
I finally found the problem!
After trying everything I knew, guessed, read,and was told and the help from various sources.
I decided to, essentially, start over.
I removed the carburetors with the intention of going completely through them. There had to be something wrong with them!
The heat shield looked a bit shabby so I decided to pull it off and paint it.
There it was! No, there they were! The exhaust manifold had a 4" crack in the center and second crack in the #4 runner that wraps about 2/3's of the way around the casting.
The only clue I had to this was that the engine sounded rather loud and when I hooked up a vacuum gauge the needle shook violently. Vacuum gauge info says this indicates a sticky valve or a broken valve spring.
After finding the cracks, I Googled "exhaust manifold cracked lean carburetor" and found my experience was not an isolated case. I replaced the manifold (it is good to be a hoarder) and like a miracle things are as they should be.
It seems this is a "lost diagnosis" fuel injection will automatically richen the mixture because of the extra oxygen in the exhaust and just give horrible gas mileage. A carburetor can't make an adjustment, Thirty years ago, given the symptoms, a mechanic would have just said "ya prolly got an exhaust leak".

Thanks for your help,
-TR