Lee Start with cap and rotor, check to see if contact is still in cap and touching rotor spring. This should be replaced any way with an MSD system. They eat the center contact if carbon base. if the car still acts up, pull cap and see if rotor is spinning and you have
oil pressure. This checks pin on distributor for not being broken. If this checks out, mark locations of rotor to housing and housing to block of car. Pull housing and check gear on distributor for all the gear being complete and in good shape, Ifd they are shaved, need new gear. Will also need to check canshaft gear too. Some MSD distributor come with bronze gear and wear out. Timing goes nuts. Start here and report back. Make sure you pull the coil wire before doing testing and power is off. If everything checks out, we are looking at coil, Is coil mounted on motor and which way, vertical or horizontial. Coil burnt out if laying on there sides over time. MSD box or module in distributor check next. Other thing is to make sure all contections are clean and tight. Battery has full charge and reads about 12.3-12.6 volts. Ground wires from frame to motor, battery to motor ( ground) battery to frame. Clean contections. This is a good start. Rick L. Ps pass this point may want to goto a garage if you are unsure about your abilities working on the car. If gears are chewed, Pull pan, cut open
oil filter,
oil change and alot of cleaning.
Good luck, wait for report Rick L.