Distributor Question

[BLACK AND BLUE 67-72]

I have forgotten which direction advances timing and which way retards it, can anyone help?? Also my vacuum advance is almost touching one of the runners on the intake so I can not turn it counter clockwise, was the dist. turned wrong when it was installed??? I am having power issues when under load like climbing a hill or if I step down on the pedal too fast it will cut out and die, so could the timing be too far advanced??? Also when starting it sometimes it acts like the motor turns over faster than the starter