Help in Phoenix

Hey everybody,

I don't come around down on the local forum much, but I've lurked around a bit. I've had my 74 Dart SE on the road for going on two years, and have put a fair amount of money into her to get and keep her on the road after buying her out in Waddell (hi Eddie, if you see this!).

Last week, I put a new battery in her after she died on the street. This week I had her in the shop to get the motor and tranny mounts replaced, and was getting ready to put new tires and shocks on her. I was driving her today, coming back from work, and the car died in the driveway, just plain shut off. Gas mileage has been getting progressively worse (filled up yesterday, she's getting ~5.5 mpg), and it seems to smell like fuel and/or burning around her after she's been running, but I've never seen a puddle, leak, or anything else to indicating problems.

Having put money into the car (a substantial amount for a fairly impoverished PhD student) and experiencing these issues, I have a request to the community. I need a Mopar person to help me with this car. I need to figure out what it is doing/not doing, and what it needs. I love my shop, but I cannot continue to afford paying for their time alone, nor do I have easy access to the tools and hardware (much less knowing much of anything about cars [note, I have learned a lot since I started owning her, but most of my energy goes toward school]). Because my functional knowledge is weak, even when I read the forums here, I can't do much with it.

If any of you folks are local, I would be quite indebted to you for any assistance/advice/whatever else you might be able to provide.

Thanks a bunch for reading,

Rick