Locking out advance with welds
If you turn the distributor body on a locked out distributor 10 degrees, the cap and pickup coil both move 10 degrees, as does the terminals inside the cap.
The only thing it changes is to make the spark sooner or later in relationship to the crank. (the rotor still does and always will point to the same place inside the cap when the spark happens no matter the distributor position )
The only way to get the locked out distributor out of phase mechanically as far as the spark is concerned would be to either move only the reluctor or only the rotor and the normal distributor isn't made that way.
With a mechanical advance distributor, the reluctor and rotor both move forward at the same time causing the spark sooner as well as advancing the rotor tip.
When vacuum advance is in use it only advances the pickup coil in relation to the reluctor and the rotor tip remains where it is.
AND it makes zero difference what the position of the bottom shaft in relation to the top shaft is because the reluctor and rotor are both fixed in relation to each other on the top part.
BUT "It still won't work with an FItech ignition 499 out of 500 times. :D
That help or make it worse? :D