a ground wire to the points distributor body is not necessary or original, but won't affect any thing, obviously it isn't "shorting" anything if you have fat spark to the plugs

you're using the Petronix coil with an original distributor, or you've gone back to the Petronix distributor again?
have you tried the points dist with an original style coil?

you've checked the timing again?
are you sure the dist isn't in backwards?
is the advance mechanism on it good, both vacuum and mechanical?

Bill

Moved over to the Passing Lane

"When we tug a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world" ~ John Muir
"When we tug a single thing on an old truck, we find it falls off" ~ me
Some TF series details & TF heater pics