Smoking ballast resistor ain't a good sign...huh?

53, what is the history of the problem? When/ how, etc under what conditions did it quit?

You sure it's not fuel as opposed to ignition?

What have you done to check for good hot spark?

If it was running, there is no reason to "tweak" the distributor unless the cam drive has slipped, and then you should fix that, not screw with the timing.