Well, just in case anyone is following this thread, I'll update these issue as they get resolved.

First off, the carb was just way out of whack on most adjustments. Took a guy who knew what he was doing all of 5 minutes to mess with the mixture, the float levels and the idle speed to get the car running smothly at the proper idle speed. Took a load off my mind. Just goes to show you that you just cannot rely on the "out of the box" settings, even though the instructions say they wet run it and calibrate it before shipping.

Still not sure what is going on with the transmission. Hooked up the vacuum line to the modulator (never could find it on my own) and had hoped that that would solve the issue- but the transmission still will not engage. Going to have the car towed to the transmission people on Monday and see what they can figure out- hopefully it's nothing too serious.

Will let you know what the story is on that as I find out.