okey doke...here goes......the ongoing saga comes to (somewhat) a conclusion....

Replaced the fuel pump relay this morning with a new one; tried to fire it up but it would still only crank and not start. Definitely smelled like she was flooded. Checked to make sure we had spark at the plugs and that all of the connections were good; changed the plugs just in case. Definitely had fuel delivery as the old plugs were very wet with gas.Decided to try starting her with the fuel relay taken out to see if we could get rid of some of the gas that she seemed to be flooded with - would start for a few seconds but then die. Got it started without the fuel relay in and had my lovely assistant Mike hook it up while I was cranking- ran rich for a minute or so and then smoothed out nicely. Just a guess, but it seems that 1) the old fuel pump relay was indeed crapped out; 2) when I replaced it I didn't have enough battery juice to actually get it going and ended up flooding it again.

NOW....after driving her around a bit noticing that idle is sometimes going up to 1700rpm and fluctuating between 1300-1700 while in neutral. My guess is the Idle Air Control....could a malfunctioning idle air control cause flooding/rich starts????