He told you. Kinda. If the mechanical advance in the distributor is giving some advance at idle, that could be your problem. Remove the cap and see how easy it is to turn the rotor advancing it. If it feels like you could blow on the rotor and advance it, it may need stronger springs to keep it from advancing at idle. Another possibility is that it's pulling air from somewhere (vacuum leak). One way to check for that is, while the engine is running, slowly close the choke plate. If the engine runs with the choke plate closed, or close to it, you likely have a vacuum leak.