Well, the car (95 Cont LX V6 ATX) seems to be working ok now. What I did was remove the metal section where the MAF sensor is and spray STP throttle-body cleaner. I don't think it made much of a difference because it wasn't dirty. I also checked the throttle plate and sprayed inside it as well. I could see a lot of gunk on the back of the throttle plate and immediately behind it, in the intake plenum. I couldn't clean out the gunk completely but I did spray profusely. I wonder how badly all that gunk is affecting engine performance. Finally, what I think did it is a little hose that connects to the big rubber hose between the MAF and the throttle. This little hose was disconnected and I'm not sure if it was because of all that fumbling or if it was indeed the cause of the problem. I tend to believe it was the cause. I connected the little hose (after not a little cursing, cajoling, huffing and puffing, and more cursing. Damn, that was hard!) and after tightening everything, voila! the car started... and then spluttered and stalled. It did that for a while until all that throttle cleaning fluid I had sprayed so liberally got consumed by the engine.
In retrospective, and having read some more of your replies, I think the little hose detached was all the problem. By disconnecting the MAF sensor I think I made the EEC-V run in some kind of emergency mode that was actually better than having it connected. I think the little hose is the bypass to the idle control valve. I wish I had looked better, but it was so damn cold I didn't care too much.
I basically fixed the problem by a lucky stroke, but my friend (the owner of the car) thinks I'm a genious, so I'll leave it like that!
Thanks for the comments.
