hard to start, running rough, weird symptoms Options

[jleblanc]

Car's been running great for a while now, except that it has always had less power around 4k RPM onward (I only mention that in case it helps explain things later) Then on a drive home last week, I had some loud backfires, and then had almost no power at all. Enough to cruise along at 60MPH, but if I gave it any more throttle it acted like nothing happened. It was also popping/backfiring a bit. I limped home, and then the next morning started looking into things. Here's now things are now:

- Hard to start. Turns over, but doesn't catch for about 5-10 seconds. Then when it does, I need to give it some throttle to keep it running. Eventually it settles to idle, but it's very low
- When it finally does agree to run, if I give it any gas it will reluctantly rev up, but then when it drops down, it will frequently stall out.
- If I pull the wire off of cyl. 3 (rear passenger side) there's no change in how the engine sounds. *but* it has spark, and the plug is wet when I pull it, which doesn't make sense to me. How could it be getting fuel *and* spark, but not change how the car runs when I pull the wire?

Other weird things that have always happened, even with the car ran well:
- The fuel pump has always run constantly as soon as I turn the key. It doesn't run and then shut off after 2 second (like I think it's supposed to?)
- pushing the brake pedal makes the parking lights come on.

New weird thing, since the other night:
- When it's idling now, if I shut the key off, the car still runs! I need to stall it out in order to shut it off.

I've changed the plugs and points (no change) and doublechecked all the vacuum lines.

Is there some obvious thing that could be causing all of this? Thanks for any help you all can provide.