Car: 1965 Volvo 122 w/ B20B, B18 distributor with no vacuum advance.

Some time ago, I installed an electronic ignition system in my car and it worked great, but I had developed an issue that led me to remove the distributor with the electronic ignition and reinstall the one I have with the points (process of elimination, and I have two distributors, one with the points, and one with the electronic ignition, making the conversion easier if stranded alongside a road somewhere with a failed electronic system). However because my issue was not related to the electronic ignition (discovered by previously stated "process of elimination") I decided to remove the points system and re-install my electronic ignition.

So yesterday I did this. I checked to make sure my valves were still adjusted properly, started it up, set the timing (with maximum total degrees advance not exceeding 35 degrees, and idle floating somewhere around 11-12 degrees) and everything worked excellent as I had assumed it would. Drove it and all worked great!

I also drove it this morning still with no issues. Then later this afternoon after I got home, I decided it was time to do a little cleaning up in the engine bay. Now, I have done this many, many times with this car with no issues, so I continued my routine. If I spray water in the engine bay, I use a very low setting and I make sure to stay away from things like distributor and fuse box. So today I did just that.

However today after I was done cleaning up the bay, I started the engine, it ran very briefly (a few seconds), then quickly sputtered and died. I continued to do this and still sputtering and dying, even popping in the carb on several occasions. Ok, not good. So I thought perhaps it was an ignition issues. So I checked to make sure no moisture was in the distributor. It was bone dry. I pulled all the plugs, all were dry of water. Checked wires, all dry. I still could not figure out what was going on. So I thought perhaps to replace the electronic distributor with the one that had the previously installed points in it. I set the timing where I thought it should be, started the car, and fiddled with it until it ran smoothly at idle.

My problem is this: it runs smoothly at idle, but at about 30-35 degrees. Obviously increasing engine speed advances the timing to an unsafe zone (past 40+). Retarding the timing toward less than 30 degrees causes the car to die and the spark plug lead that my timing light is on to no longer pick up signal, leading me to believe that lead is no longer delivering a spark, (which was confirmed by plugging a spark plug in and touching the base to metal until I advanced the timing).

I just wanted to say that the same symptoms were present when trying this with the electronic ignition setup as well, as I switched between the two thinking it was a problem with the setup, but it's present with both.

Can someone tell me what may be the problem? This is my daily driver. I need help getting it back on the road.

Thanks!