[Gunner]

It sounds like you need to start with a full baseline on the carbs. Disconnect the secondary carb and adjust the primary first. There are any number of good threads and reference sites that will take you through the basics. It starts by setting the butterflies, then tweaking the idle mixture for the smoothest, fastest idle with the butterflies as closed as they can get. For most carbs, this is between 3/4 of a turn and 1-1/2 turns out. A vacuum gauge can help you find the point of max idle vacuum, which for some engines is optimum; as I painfully learned recently, another quarter turn or so rich from that point can work wonders.

Trying to keep diddling a carb that has more than one setting wrong can be very frustrating. Take it down to the base starting point and work as if it's a new carb.

Given that you don't have a very easily adjustable distributor, leave the timing alone for now. Get the carbs set up correctly first.