I have a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (Hurst Olds) with a 307 engine and 54k Kilometers. The car was the victim of an attempted car theft. The thieves smashed the steering column in an attempt to hot wire the car but the aftermarket alarm system that cuts the volts going to the ignition from 12 to 6 prevented the car from starting and the thieves gave up.
The column has since been replaced and all looked good but soon after, at different times, wisps of smoke that smelled like wire insulation burning came from the ignition key cylinder. Soon after the wisps of smoke stopped, the car started running rough and spark plugs were fouling out very quickly, it seemed every 10-20 miles it was time to replace them. When taken out, the plugs were a mixture of dry grey soot and black, wet with gas.

I took the steering wheel off, took out the lock cylinder and saw no signs of burnt wires; so maybe the problem is further down the column? I have been told that the automatic choke may be stuck open. I opened the auto choke on the carb and saw nothing unusual but replaced it anyway. I don't know if that really helped any. I also replaced the ignition switch on the column under the dash sometime back but that didn't seem to help.

I do wonder if the old aftermarket alarm system (Auto Page brand), which is still wired in the car but not working, could be part of the problem but do you think would this cause wires to start burning in the column? I would have taken the alarm system out but I don't know how to reroute the wires and would probably need a wiring diagram to figure it out.

This does seem to be an electrical issue because it appears that's how the problem started. I am stumped at what the problem might be.

Hope I've given you enough info to go on. Any help or suggestions on what you think I should look at or maybe replacing would be appreciated.

thank you!