I'll pay someone to jot down step by step the necessary procedure to adjust an 87' TPI with external coil I mean every detail so there is no misunderstanding. I can't for the life of me seem to get it right. The bird just dosent have power on 2nd and 3rd. I disconnected the timing harness, set the dial to 12 on the gun and rotated the distributor clockwise to get the timing tab to zero and it was idling really bad. I then tried it at 8 degrees and adjusted the distributor at counter clockwise to get it to zero and idle got better, but performance lagged. Car was running like a champ before i messed with the timing. At second and third gear with WOT, there isnt any backfiring or bogging, its just lacking in power.

 

A lot of those dial-back timing lights are not even close. Try leaving the gun at 0 and setting it to 6 btdc with the connector open and see how it runs.