Great starting became hard starting.

Here's my 2cents;
I think you said; When the lokar was sticking the idle speed was higher. So at that time you had more T-port exposure.
Now with the cable relaxed, the throttle is closing too far down the T-port.
The solution of course is to increase the curb-idle adjustment. And if the idle speed is too high for you, then the only solution is to make sure the secondaries are closed up tight, but not sticking. And if the idle speed is still too fast then you will have to back off the timing.
The 18* of idle timing and 20inches of vacuum is telling me that your engine doesn't need or want that much idle-timing. The 262 is fighting back by being too far down on the transfers.
AJ's guide to Transfer Port Synchronization