Pushed her home yesterday

He says he can't get the dwell where he wants. I am suspicious. Either the dwell meter is AFU or the distributor shaft is bent/ bad bearings. etc or worn out distributor cam, which is rare.

I would double check with a feeler gauge. Or double check find a different dwell meter. And, are you ABSOLUTELY sure you had the dwell meter correctly set (6 vs 8 and reading correct meter scale?)

Did you lube the points rubbing block? Did the points "wear" shut?

I agree, tho with the distrust of condensers (capacitors/ caps) I do not use OEM style caps in my outboards. I use plastic AKA "orange drop" plastic film style.

Contrary to internet/ yewtoobe "wisdom," YOU CAN NOT test caps with an ohmeter. You MUST have a high voltage source (100-200V for automotive caps) to do a leakage test. A leaky cap will ALSO read artificially high in capacity. This means that if it is actually low in capacity, it might read "OK". Leakage (lack of it) is VERY important

Are you ABSOLUTELY sure you have the correct points? I don't know what the "fit" difference is, but not all Mopar dual points are the same. What by the way are we even working on here? Is this a Ford? What engine and what distributor, AKA Prestolite/ Accel, Mallory, or ????