camz77

so i purchased a 77 z in january and have been just lightly working with the car trying to fix the years of neglect and trying determine if the problems im facing could be related or if i just have a few multiple. also ive been sifting through the posts on here and cant seem to find answers to what im trying to fix. so im posting a new thread. so to start off this car sat for at least 3 years, runs and drives as well. however running is running but not running well. the car has a poor idle and has quite a bit of hesitation. until reaching about 2500 rpm. and also backfires. exhaust and intake. when the water temp sensor is unplugged it runs a lot better with little to no back firing. but does have an even worse idle. but has no hesitation when the throttle is pressed. ive been looking into it and thought maybe its the afm. however it seems to be working properly and i also figured the water temp sensor wouldnt effect the afm that much so ive begun to stray away from the afm as a likely culprit. also noticed that the spark plugs are all black which i have cleaned a few times since i purchased. which leads me to believe that its running rich. this is something that im wondering is related somehow. none of the gauges aside from the speedo tach and voltage work. all read 0. i have replaced the sending unit for the temp. and have checked the connections and all seem to be fine. checked all fuses and none are faulty. figured before i just started dumping money i would ask and see if anyone has an answer to my problems or problem. thanks!