Jay, as a previous poster mentioned, I had a similar experience with my old 216 several years ago. The wire from the distributor to the coil was frayed and not making solid connection. As the distributor rotates hundreds and thousands of times, that wire can slowly deteriorate. Replaced the wire and started and ran much better. Definitely worth checking as part of your testing/diagnosis.
Also, you mentioned a few backfires. Have you had a timing light on it to confirm the timing is set correctly?
Last edited by Green_98; 07/06/2020 12:16 PM.
