Nice new project, good to see more Eagles in the Northwest .
When you say the brass thing next to the round thing, i think that should be your autochoke and vaccum powered lifter that runs off of it.
Basically autochoke is like a tempature sensitive spring coil that the vaccumed lifter (brass thing) lifts up and down off of what the autochoke thinks it needs to do, Are there any vaccum lines headed to the lifter? and is the autochoke powered? I strangely enough think i have the same issue, car wants to stall alot when it is cold and im 95% sure my choke isn't working correctly (haven't been able to pull either off yet, haven't had time to test). If your choke is working just fine i may be wrong though. For me it struggles when cold, and runs fine hot. If this is you. i'd maybe start there.