Toyota Repair: Air Intake or fuel problem?, toyota celica gts, fuel leaks

Question
I have an manual 2.4 liter 1984 Toyota Celica GTS with 182k on it and have come across a very puzzeling problem. I recently changed out my fuel filter and started the car up to check for fuel leaks. Worked fine. Let the car idle there for about 20 minutes then took it for a drive. After driving no more than thirty seconds my gauge cluster went out and the car sputtered to a stop. Upon starting the vehicle again it ran for ten seconds then slowly stalled. Every time i turned the key the alternator light was the only indication i had and it would go out after starting and then the car would only slowly stall on me. I took off the fuel filter to see if it was clogged or even getting fuel and it was good. I then checked for vacuume leaks and found that the air intake manifold hose had a three inch split in it. Replaced it. Car still did the same thing. Now i started to wonder if the Electronic Fuel Controller on my intake was bad so i disconnected the plug from the efi controller and then started the car. The car idled perfectly and would cut off if i gave it the slightest bit of gas. Upon normal operation of the car if i were to disconnect the efi controller it would throb while idling. Would a bad EFI controller be at fault here or a bad throttle positioning sensor. And i have no idea why my gauges dont show any signs of life exept for the dash lights still work. I have checked all fuses and relays and have found none of them to be at fault. It makes no sense that the gauges would have something in common with whatever made the car stall in the first place. I dont want to just buy parts and start replacing them hoping to get lucky because that could get costly. And do you think that this malfuntion could have made the Ecu go haywire. If so that could be the cause of the faulty guages. Should i take the car in and have a mechanic run a code scanner on it.  Please help me narrow this down anything will help right about now.  

Answer
In order to be of any help at all I need to know how the car ran before the fuel filter was replaced, was it behaving the same way as it is now?
Was the fuel filter replaced to remedy this issue?
What I'm trying to determine is whether or not replacing the fuel filter caused this to happen or if the same problem was there before replacing it, please follow up and be as precise as you can with the reply.