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.

Check your fuel pump pressure and do a compression check and report back.

It would be nice if you provided the type of fuel deliver that you are running that helps us point you in the right direction.

Timing and point will also cause this problem but you are going to wont to check all your grounds and wire connection.

Sounds kind of like what happened to me when one of the valve seats dropped on my motor.

When you crank the starter, how does it sound? Does it go "RR-RR-RR-..-RR-RR-RR-.."? That means the starter isn't really working hard on compressing one of the four cylinders, which means a loss of compression on one. Not a happy thing.

The taillight problem and the not run-on problem may very well be related. I once put the wrong light in my left-rear turn signal (single-filament bulb instead of two-filament) and the car would stay running when the left turn signal was on. The "parking light" circuit was feeding power back through the turn signal switch to the ignition switch, all the way to the ignition...

Sounds like you have some wires crossed on your turn signal buckets.

--DD

Thanks guys. It's a '74 2.0 with the stock FI.

As much as it scares me, what you describe makes sense Dave, When it does run, there's a noticeable noise coming from #4.

I don't have the tools to check compression or fuel pressure, but I'll try to get some this week and do that.

Sounds very lean to me. Could be a lean pop?
Check fuel pressure and volume. Could have enough pressure but not enough volume.
74 Djet? L jet ignore me, don't know those at all. Check :
Map sensor for vac leaks.
Decel valve to make sure its closed.
Cold start fast idle valve, make sure it closes.
Throttle position sensor.

None of this should cause it to keep running though, unless it has leaky injectors and it deiseling.

BTW, if it has a PCV valve, make sure its seating as well.