edelbrock carburetor modifications

So i just pulled the vaccume advance house off and i was wrong it was not on the full manifold vaccume side of the carburetor it was on the left side and the drivers side port is plugged off. So i plugged the vaccume advance hose set the initial timing at 10 degrees then i had my girl friend get in it and hold the gas pedal at a steady 2500rpm and i set my timing light at 35 degrees and it was running more at like 38 to 40 degrees with the light dialed in at 35 so i pulled the distributer back just a tad got out and checked it again with the light dialed in at 35 and it was dead on. Told the old lady to let go of the gas and get out then i hooked the vaccume advance hose back into the passenger side port of the carburetor and i attempted to adjust the idle but i noticed something. The nut that is holding my gas pedal cable to the carburetor is pretty big and when i turn the idle screw in it pushes against that nut and there fore its pusing the gas pedal down.... so i backed it off untill it wasnt pushing the gas pedal down and it was idleing pretty darn close to right, maybe just a hair high but sounded good. I reved it up a few times and no popping thru the exhaust or anything and sounded pretty good. With the initial set at 10 degrees instead of 5 it seems to rev up faster, with faster response. and it idled a little bit higher then it did while sitting at 5.
Another thing i noticed that i think is worth mentioning, you can not advance my distributer any further then 12 degrees initial. i advanced it all the way to where it would not move anymore and checked it while at an idle and it was at 12 degrees. My old man installed the distributer on this engine and he was the smartest mopar man i have ever met, unfortunetly he passed away a year and a half ago, is it possible he installed this way to where you could not advance it any further then 12 degrees? i'm thinking he put the distributer in that way so it could never be advanced any further then 12 degrees initial so that the engine could not be hurt. But anyways its running at 10 degrees initial and 35 degrees at 2500 rpm. with the vaccume advanced hose being plugged off while timing it. I hope this sounds better then 5 degrees initial. the engine reved up a little quicker at 10 degrees initial vs 5 degrees i did notice that much.