The underside of the breaker plate is supposed to have 3 little plastic buttons that keep the plate stable through the vacuum advance movement. If they are not there the points are never going to operate right as the gap is constantly changing and makes the timing jump back and forth as well as the dwell setting.
You should invest in a rebuilt distributor and install a Petronics conversion. Also make sure the outer wheel on the harmonic balancer has not slipped so be sure the marks line up when you check for top dead center.
It appears you have a "kiyoudle" which here in Louisiana means a dog of questinable heritage. Good luck, don't give up.

 

I can't pronounce that and google doesn't even know what it is.
I built some apartment at I-10 and St Augastine? North east corner.

 

Hm, like a cross between a coyote and a poodle?

Coy-oodle? Ki-oodle? What do I win?

 

2X. I think the twist play is a tad more than normal. And that breaker plate needs to go. I'd be willing to bet running and reving that motor at different RPMs would make the needle on a dwell meter move all over the place. The dwell shouldn't move any more than 2-3 degrees. Buy a good quality Dizzy. And if you got the cashola do a Pertronix conversion also.

 

Some of my earliest memories I can remember people referring to dogs like that.
It is probably some kind of Cajun French invention.
Back to the truck, once the ignition timing is stabilized it should idle much better.

 

I bought a new breaker plate, as well as points, condenser, cap, and rotor from rockauto, so next week all those will be going in. I also went to China Freight and picked up a surprisingly decent looking vacuum gauge, timing light, and feeler gauge.

Hopefully I can get this truck running real well after this. Thanks guys!

 

The 2100 motorcraft/autolite carb should get better gas mileage over the holley 500 cfm carb.

And in general if the carb air/fuel screws have no affect when turned in and closed off the fuel supply the carb has a bad power valve.

Orich

 

OK but I still think you need more. I suggest pulling the Dizzy and checking the drive gear for worn teeth. Also check the roll pin that holds it on the Dizzy's shaft. I've seen where the gear spun a tad on the shaft breaking the pin in there. With a small punch start to pound out the pin. If it starts to come out the other side it is OK. If it doesn't want to then the gear is spun. To pull the Dizzy, 1st mark where the Dizzy's body is mounted in relation to some spot on the engine. 2nd, mark somewhere on the engine where the nipple on the vac advance is pointing. This is in case you end up installing a new Dizzy. 3rd, mark on the top of the Dizzy's body and somewhere on the engine where the rotor is currently pointing. When installing the old or new Dizzy simply line everything up again and the timing will be the same or darn close. Checking with a timing light should still be done but at least you know it will fire up.
BTW, Installing the breaker plate and setting the points gap will be a bit easier with the dizzy right in front of you carefully in your vise.

 

2x with Jeff replacing the hole dizzy. The upper shaft bushing also gets a bit worn from the points spring tension alter yrs of use that causes the points gap setting to float around. You can check it by moving upper part of the shaft back & fourth if any movement it's bad.
Orich