512 BB idling and running very sluggish??

So my '78 512 BB was running great! One day while out on a drive, I noticed the rpm gauge was not operating, and then I noticed, aside from the clock and battery gauge, all of the other gauges were out. I figured was probably just a fuse, so did not pay much attention to it. A few days later, we are having some work done on the garage, so I moved the BB and other cars out for the day, in the evening, when putting the BB back in, it got kind of choked up after starting it, and then gave a very loud backfire and then seemed fine. Next day, same deal, move the cars out for them to work in the garage, the BB started fine, I pulled it out, and then went to back it up, got very choked up, was idling very sluggish, and eventually stalled out. I let it sit for a few hours, tried it again, fired up and sounded ok, so I proceeded down the driveway, and onto our neighborhood street, only for it to start getting very sluggish, choked up, and eventually stalling by the next door neighbors house. I had to rope tow it back up our driveway. Next day, I tried several times to start it, and nothing, it would sound like it wanted to start but never fired up.

So the next day, I started to look into the fuses. The #2 fuse (8A), which says controls the instruments, reverse lights, choke, and fast idle device, was dead. So I put a new fuse in, and now all of the instruments are back working. So I was thinking, if that fuse controls the choke and the fast idle device, could that have been my problem with the engine getting sluggish? Was I just basically flooding the engine each time because the choke was not working? I tried to start it over the weekend, it did fire up, was idling sluggish still but seemed like it wanted to clear up.

So does anyone have any thoughts on what was going on, and how I can get it running properly and good again? Was it because the choke was out from the fuse? And do I just need to start it and let it run for awhile to clear all that out? Any thoughts and/or suggestions are very much welcomed!

Thank you all!