First time poster. Great site!

Background info:
I bought an 87 samurai from a toyota ASE mechanic. He had done a full toyota conversion using an 87 truck. 22r, 4:10's, YJ springs, 31" tires, etc... It looked solid and I got caught up a little and bought the thing without doing a good inspection. Figuring it was solid because it was a mechanic who built it. big mistake.

I have had this truck a few weeks now and have found a ton of problems. Most are little things like shock mounts breaking, e-brakes not working, wheel bearings loose, calipers leaking, but my big problems are that there is no power going up hill. In 4th and 5th gear, I have no power. I am downshifting into 2nd and 3rd to climb modest hills on the open highway. I am also stalling when I come to a stop. This is not all the time, but intermittingly with no pattern. I took it to the mechanic today and they performed a compression check #1 and 4 were at 90, #2 was 120 and #3 was 150 They also found that the electric choke was never hooked up. They suggested two things: adjust valves & wire in a choke. Simple enough and they are going to tackle these things on Tuesday next week, but I am thinking of doing the work on it this weekend. Wondering if anyone out there has any advice? Never wired a choke, but I have wired a couple VW kit cars from scratch, so I think I am up for it. Advice on where to run it from? Also, will adjusting the valves really bring the compression up that much? Any thoughts would be great in helping this newbie to Toyotas.

Thanks!