A few days ago I was driving down the road and the engine died and would not start. I had the car (1988 Firebird 2.8 v6) towed home and checked things and found engine code of 12 (no problems) but no spark. I figured it must be a bad distributor.

I called the parts store and they had a new one (Spectra Premium brand part GM17) so I purchased it and installed it the next day.

It fired right up with the new dizzy so I warmed it up to allow the timing to be set properly. I separated the two parts of the connector with the tan wire with black stripe and started the engine. The timing light showed that the timing was a bit high so I brought it down to 10 degrees like it says on the hood decal. The engine was idling at about 600 RPM with it at 10 degrees.

I gave it some throttle and noticed that the timing dropped for a split second and then advanced. The tan wire connector was separated so it should not advance with increased throttle. Right?

I killed the engine and reconnected the separated tan wire and restarted it to check the timing in normal mode. The timing was the same 10 degrees. When I gave it a little throttle, it dropped for a split second and then advanced just like it did with the tan wire separated. When I took it for a test drive the power is less than when the old dizzy was working.

Does someone have some insight into what I am missing or need to do different?