Electronic ignition issue

Got the car fired up this morning. I had to advance the distributor a fair ways to get it to fire.My vacuum advance seems to be in a different position than my original mark and my visual recollection. It was lining up with the #8 cylinder visually now to get it to run it is between #6 - #8 which I think is probably too much. I don't have access to a timing light today so I am a little reluctant to go on a test run. If I do a short run is there a chance of damage to the engine with it advanced in this state. Also did a quick check on the alternator and it seems to be charging the battery back up to 14.0 after a few hard starting sessions this morning. Thanks Jeff