Spent the afternoon killing my battery trying to get this @#$% van started.
Replaced distributor with a new rebuilt dizzy from Rock-auto, and a set of
hot-spark pointless points (that's for sure). Turns out the electronic
points are randomly misfiring at speed, getting worse until van dies. Swap
them with stock points and it still runs like crap although not misfiring
(can tell by timing light). Just can't get the timing set right. Yanked the
new dizzy and the shaft seems misaligned - when I look at the notch for the
rotor and compare it to the engagement pawls at the bottom of the shaft, the
new dizzy is different by about 25 degrees. I can't set timing right because
the vacuum advance can hits the cold start valve. WTF? Am I expected to
change the relationship between the camshaft and distributor or this a screw
up by the rebuilder?

Nathaniel