Did you set the timing at all? Did you set the point gap/dwell? If you do not have those spot-on then do not mess with the carb or anything else until you do.
The vacuum advance should move the distributor quite a bit. It has detents built into the mechanism and should not give you trouble.
While you have the dist. open, check to make sure the centrifugal advance is working. The weights are under the breaker point plate, and they need to move freely and the springs should be present.
It sounds to me like your point gap is messed up and you need to reset it and adjust the timing, then revisit the carb if that doesn't fix it. Troubleshooting should always start by fixing the ignition first.
