Engine Issues...(help)

[Harlow]

Alright, When I set the timing with the car in park I set it to 12* before with the vacuum disconnected, then when I reconnect the vacuum the timing jumps to WAY before, is this normal? Also with the idle in park at 850, when I throw the car into gear the rpms drop to 500-600 and it wants to die. If I set the idle speed to 850 with the car in gear it runs fine, but when I put it in neutral the rpms jump to around 2500-3000. Could the transmission be bogging the engine down? Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,
Scott

[John_Kunkel]

If the engine setup requires a large throttle opening to maintain an idle, then the ported vacuum will be high at idle and will pull the vacuum advance more than if the butterflies were nearly closed at idle.

The transmission/converter often get the blame for tuneup related problems.

[myk]

Is there any way that a 'convertor or transmission could "bog" or otherwise hamper an engine?  The day after I picked up my car from the 'trans place, I had a hesitation that I've been fighting ever since...

[Chryco Psycho]

make sure the dist is hooked to ported vacuum [above the throttle plates ] , you may have it connected to manifold vacuum instead which will not operate the vacuum advance correctly 

[deathcharger71]

i had the same problem and just disconnected the vacuum advance as a quick fix, i was also told that theres an allen adjustment on the mopar distributors that adjusts how much timing it advances. just disconecting the vacuum advance solved a lot of issues for me.