1984 toyota pickup, 22R engine, stalls out when driving 2-8 miles

The engine, since I bought it new in '84, has always taken 3 times to turn over, but it would always start. I have about 174,000 miles on it. the last summer I would take it for short shopping trips. After 10 minutes in the store, I would have to crank it and wait to finally get it going again, usually 3 to 10 mins. One day after driving on the freeway for about 8 miles it choked once as a warning and then died, in traffic. I talked to my Toyota mechanic and he said it could be electrical or fuel, until it died and stayed dead, they could only guess. I did go ahead and have the carburator rebuilt, as that had never been done. The AAP valve was found ruptured and he replaced it. It can start on the first try now, but still dies out over distance. I did find on one die-out that when I popped the clutch, I got it to restart. It died again and I popped it and pulled over and it kept running. It has stalled and died since then. I was thinking it was heat related, but the last trip was pretty short, about 2 miles when it died still giving me that choke warning before stopping. Any Ideas? Can the catalytic converter contribute to any of this?