just to clarify, my springs had gone weak, limp as they say. Couldnt keep up anymore. I've not broken any yet, and that's the only distributor i've ever had springs fail in, but a new distributor fixed it right up. For me the retarding spring had gone weak and this caused the vaccum diaphram to pull the advance really easily but also made it hard to keep it constant. The timing was bouncing all over the place when holding the engine at a constant RPM to create some engine vaccum.

If any of you ever experience this out on the trail, to get myself home that day; I unhooked the vaccum advance, then set the timing around 5*-10* advanced, wherever it will run decently and not get too hot either city or highway driving, whichever you need to do. I drove a 2.6 from bellingham washington to phoenix like that. (had trouble getting that specific distributor on the west coast that week).