I've had it with this car.

Your coil should spark everytime that you ground the ground side of the coil when you have 12v to the hot side. That is what the points are doing - making the connection to ground. So, armed with that knowledge you should be able to troubleshoot the electrical side of things. Now as for the spark timing, the retard / advance changes based on engine speed and load - that is what the advance is about. Either one of those is causing you problems. Just fix it. Hell, if a 16 yr old kid can fix his VW bug based on that little bit of knoledge...