First concerning issue

[Rawkkrawler]

I say concerning only because it's intermittent and the motor quit thus forcing me to pull over to troubleshoot. No real warning, slightly under load, just a sputter than tach to zero.

Basic info:

Carb'd 5.0 with Quickfuel 650
Mallory Max-Fire distributer (1 year, 1600 miles old)
Mallory coil
Electric fuel pump

First thing I did was turn the ignition on and read the fuel pressure gauge under the hood, it was at 6.5-7lbs. Nothing alarming there. Then I moved the throttle linkage, gas squirt in as usual. I pulled the coil wire and cranked the engine, spark popping like normal. I pulled the distributer cap and cranked it, rotor spun normal. The only thing I did was clean (scrape) the cap contact points a little and put everything back together. It fired right up and drove the 5 miles back home.

I took it out later that night and it sputtered once at a light but didn't stall. About a half mile later it had a loss of power under a slight load. Had it at about 1/2 throttle and it barely maintained 1000 rpm then quit again. I had an overwhelming fuel smell almost bad smelling. This time I was able to restart it by just holding the gas pedal to the floor as it appeared to be flooded. This may not be a symptom as I had the pedal 1/2 throttle right before it stalled.

So, it appears to be either an ignition problem or a bad fuel problem.

All of the wires are connected firmly. I'll double check the ground this morning.

I'm a little worried about the Mallory dist. It's an all in one unit and there is no real way to troubleshoot it I don't think. Is it possible that a worn out dist cap could give me these issues? Seems a little sudden to just shut the car down. I'd understand a lack in performance.

Sorry for the long winded post but I'm puzzled on this one.

Thanks!