Had Trouble starting my 55 Special today

[My55buick]

I have a 55 Buick special with the 264 and Stromberg Aero Type Carb, it ran pretty good but had been sitting a long time and needed a little TLC. I Soaked the whole engine compartment with Castrol Super clean, then power washed it clean, with the intention of detailing the engine compartment and fixing a few things. I pulled the carb off and took it apart to rebuild it, Pulled the radiator to be boiled, painted the fan shroud, fan, and pulleys one thing led to another and the car sat for a year. I finally had some time so I put the rebuilt carb on, rebuilt fuel pump, and put in a new rubber fuel line. I tried to start the car and had no spark, I noticed it seemed like the coil was jumping spark to the negative post on the coil.

I took the points and condensor out of the distributor checked all the wires and they were in good shape, I sanded the points to get them clean, and I checked the condensor with an ohm meter. Turns out the condensor was bad. I had a new one in the garage not sure what kind of car it was for, but an old mechanic friend of mine says theyre all the same. Once I put it back together she started up but it took keeping the carb at 1/4 throttle to get it to Idle. At this point I figured the carb was out of tune and it was no big deal. So I went back to work, put the fan shroud, fan, pulley, new belt, and the radiator back in. I didn't fill it with antifreeze yet I just wanted to try starting it one more time. I started cranking it, and this time it wouldn't start no matter what I did, until I tried holding the throttle wide open then it caught and ran at like 500rpm for a minute or two and wouldn't accelerate any higher and eventually it would just stall. Im wondering, can messing with the points change my timing? The way its running almost seems like when you replace a distributor and youre like a tooth to retarded and the timming isnt right and it only runs floored. Im thinking also maybe the points have had it. The Points and Condenser look original they are Delco Remy with the old school font, the car only had 49k miles on it and has been parked since 73'. I noticed in my distributor there is 1 screw that holds the points down and then there is one screw like in the center of them that is just straight into the base plate, what is that screw for? I want to change my plugs, but would like to stay with AC Delco because it was OE however they don't have a listing for them, and the number in my shop manual is to old to look up, what do you guys run? I need to get this thing running right, I'm just trying to cover all bases.

[My55buick]

Did some research and it turns out the screw in the distributor I was talking about is an eccentric for the points.

[Bob]

I am not seeing where you say you pulled the distributor, so I don't understand why you would suspect it being a tooth out, though it does sound quite possibly like bad timeing.

[My55buick]

I never pulled the distributor, I was saying the way it was running seemed similar to a car that's a tooth out. I know messing with points effects timing but I'm just curious by how much? I know the factory said 5 degrees btdc what do you guys usually set yours to - was thinkng around 10? I cleaned the plugs and the car is running now but not well, so next up is checking my timing.