Is it safe to assume that by the appearance of black smoke at start, an occasional misfire, slight roughness at idle, and by light carbon coat on spark plugs I may have an idle mixture control anomaly? I need to get the car past the smog check.

There are no engine servicing & repair instructions provided on my 107 CD ROM.

Which components make up the idle mixture control circuit and what is the troubleshooting approach?

Probably, ..all you need is a good tune up. When was the last time you replace the cap, rotor, plugs and wires...? Also, ..check and set your timing. Hope this helps....

The rotor, distributor cap, spark plugs and wires were replaced one month ago. The timing, however, was just set by "sounds kinda right" principle. Is there a procedure for
setting the timing which I can follow?

Tahk you.

you need a timing light and adjust the distributor to the right dwell that your car specs requires. Observe how the engine function at this setting. Monitors vibrations, rpm and etc....