You know ,the distributor and magnetic pickup are both used, plucked out of a shed and given to me. Any way to test that magnetic pickup to see if it is bad?
Small update. Timing was shown to be about 20-25 BTDC (yikes!). Got it back up to about 10 BTDC and tightened it up there. My misfiring is gone, the idle has improved greatly, and if I left the car shut down for a few minutes it would start much easier than before. Took a short drive up and down the street, restarting the engine multiple times. So far, so good. Next little 'baby step' is to the gas station.
