[Oldsguy]

jdorour has a good point. With the brake pedal effort problem that indicates vaccum leaks. It may even be the power brake accumulator/booster. If you have a vaccum gauge you could check it that way. You should have 15 to 18 pounds at a good idle of about 850 rpm. A way some people localize vaccum leaks, after of course a good visual for obvious un-connected ports etc, is to use starting fluid, it is a lot safer than using gasoline or carb cleaner because it's flash point is much higher. Buy a can of that stuff and spray in suspected places like the carb baseplate like jdorour mentioned, intake manifold sealing surfaces to the head near the ports, distributor vaccum advance pot, any vaccum pots on the carb, and places where there are T's and sensors hooked to vaccum lines. You will notice a jump in idle speed where there is a leak. I suggest you start your car and let it warm up right in the driveway, don't drive it, after the engine is warm just goose the accelerator linkage to dis-engage the choke circuit, if it does the idle should drop. If the engine will still idle on it's own then do the spray trick. Your idle should be smooth and even. If it isn't you probably have a vaccum leak. Also, the grease on the mechanical advance springs probably didn't hurt although you can buy a light grease made for that purpose, it's no biggie. Just don't use too much, it only takes a little. The condition of the tower contacts are more important to determine distributor cap "health". There should be no/little corrosion on them, white if they are aluminum and reddish if they are copper. You have to take this whole thing one step at a time though. Make sure you don't have a vaccum leak first. Good luck.