The cam follower on the points is mica, non conductive. If you don't have any play from the bottom of the shaft (cam gear) to the top, point cam, it's ok. My take looking at it is the points are not secure with the screw holding them down, does it screw down tight?

 

Yea its tight, i can pick up on the top of the cam and it has some play up and down but not side to side Pulled up.
Pushed down.

 

Take a feeler gauge, and gap them to .017-.018"

 

I have, then when I check the dwell it is at 25 degrees, but it seems to run great on that.

 

Leave it there as it looks like you have to take a screwdriver to step it into dwell, in other words, there used to be more readily available point/conderser that had an allen head that you could set the dwell with it running. Setting the gap at .017 is fine

 

So I really need some help now, I had dropped the gap in the points to 0.010 and it got to a 31 degree dwell, but it run like crap, so i put it back to what it was running before and now it has some power in 1st gear and second gear but when it hits third and accelerating it starts bucking and loses power, I didnt mess with anything other than the points and they are gapped to 0.017 now, this thing really has me stumped but at the moment its my only means of transportation, if anyone can tell me whats happening i would appreciate it.

 

Ok, once again. put the cam point of the cam of the distributor on the high point of the mica arm on the points. With the #1 cylinder at top dead center or there abouts, open the set screw on the base of the points till you have around ".017 inch. This should get you close.

 

Your dwell meter could be out of calibration. Set as close as you can with the feeler gauge and leave it there. You said it runs the best at that setting anyway.

 

Ok guys I dove into this a little more, pulled the distributor and found that the roll pin was worn so the drive gear was lose side to side, so I replaced the roll pin now the gear is tight, but still had the motor shaking when accelerating so I started pulling vac hoses, I got to the vapor canister that has a removable top where the carb line goes in, the diaphragm inside was ripped, so I'm in the process of trying to get that fixed, can't afford a new canister at the moment, but I added a pic of the distributor with the gear removed.

 

Ok so here is a bit of an update, i got the timing mark to stop jumping, i changed the points and also the vac line from the manifold to the break booster was cracked and missing a clamp i got a new piece of hose and some clamps and now 99% of the time the timing mark is right on, after that i set the timing mark to 8 degrees that is says to on the sticker under the hood and it stopped the backfire it was having at idle, the only problem I am having now is when i accelerate to 55 or 60 the motor bucks like it loses power, if I tromp on the gas to accelerate fast it bucks at 38, but when breaking at any speed it backfires but not any other time, I'm thinking something is wrong with the carb but i just put a rebuild kit into it, i did however a few weeks ago when trying to get the dwell set right i had to set the points to 0.010 to get the dwell to 31 degrees, when i did this it ran for a bit and then made a loud pop from the carb and shut off, i dont know what the bucking is caused from though, anyone have any ideas?