Any real idea what the issue is? I can adjust/fix timing easily enough and I have about a mile of various size vacuum hose. I don't mind a daily driver I have to work on. It just needs to be reliable between maintenance.
Honestly, no. My plan for diagnosing it was to verify everything still lines up at TDC at both crank and cam pulleys. Once that's good (+/- 5 degrees), yank and reseat the distributor. Then try to fire and hit it with the timing light. If not, yank that dizzy assembly and try the spare - then combinations of cap/rotor from each assembly. Also replace the O2 sensor with the spare I have.
I'm pretty sure my A/F mixture and idle speed got simultaneously borked when I fixed that vacuum line while replacing the TPS with a spare. I started messing with the TPS because spark signal seemed to drop out at 3k rpm in 3rd gear and it would just backfire, but eventually coughed its way through it and found power again. No idea why.... I don't think the ECU has different profiles for each gear, but I figured maybe the pedal travel was "maxing out" the mechanical TPS range. Idk.
I'm sure I've got the parts needed to fix it. I just don't have the will or patience to get it running again to sort the rest out. It was running well for a while though and I learned a lot about the 18et that I hope to never need to utilize again.