Lower gears and still slugish.

I have been having trouble with timing. Its hard to pin down. added timing tape, running mag pickup in dist. Dist has silver springs on the mechanical advance. Going out in a few and get what its set at right now and let you guys know. The car started instantly before an my dad said I needed to retard it a little. Now it cranks several times before it starts. About the shifts.. I can shift manually into first an second,(when I can find them with this ratchet shifter). let me check timing.