I made it home and have been working on it since.
Will weak mech advance springs do this?
can a sticking beacon advance cause this problem?

i need help! I'm at my wits end as to what to do next.
Pull the distributor, replace the gear?

 

I know it is late and you may have already fixed the problem.
How about a little more info, have no idea what you are driving.
Eng size ,type, miles, recent maint done , did you just purchase gas, the more info you can provide the better, thanks.

 

F100, 352, 4bbl, less than 100k mis, 3spd manual shift. Ran really good til a screw came out the points. I put it back in on the road, set the points by eye. Ran pretty well. Reset by feeler gauge the next day. Ran pretty good, til it didn't anymore. Went downhill in a week of 120 mile daily commute.

 

ive bought gas a few times since

 

ive bought gas a few times since. Fuel delivery is good, accelerator pump pumping.

I lubed the adv springs, and vac adv plate slide buttons. Had it running pretty well and accelerating well, an hour ago. Slight miss so tried to dial in points dwell, now won't start.
I am going to change the plugs after I eat

 

Contact points, I remember emm!
Did you recheck the contact points again?
If the rubbing block was not lubricated the fiber will wear quickly and the gap closes and it doesn't want to run ! Make sure that there is not a lot of metal transfer from one contact to the other, we used to file them with a point file to clean the contacts. If there is a lot of metal transfer it will close the gap and the closer the gap the higher the dwell and the more retarded the timing. Some points had an addl ground wire from the point mounting to the inside of the dist. If oil gets on the contacts they will burn and make poor contact. If you reinstalled the original screw for the points OK, if not just checking.

If I recall somewhere near correctly dwell should be around 28-30.deg ,or approx .015 in gap. with clean points.