Car dies in gear...

That can cause issues...
It's worth the extra time to pull off the carb and verify that the slots are still good. I'd square them off and just barely open the secondary plates from lightly seated (1/2 to 1 turn) and back your mixture screws out 1.5 turns. After this, if you can't get your idle set with very small adjustments to the curb idle screw, adjust the secondaries some more.