[newshirt]

The screw on the side of the distributor is just a set screw to hold it in place.

My Model A ran much like yours when I first got it. So I set out to replace every ignition part on the car regardless of quality. I replaced the coil, coil wire, dist cap, body, rotor, points, and plugs. It ran MUCH better after that.

But then I moved on to replace the carb and distributor with a rebuilts from Bert's. That made it run much, much better. Now it's smooth and responsive like a "new" car.

I know this sounds like a shotgun approach, but it worked well for me. Now I can focus on learning to rebuild the old dist and carb.