I used to have a '73 164 -- except for repetitios high pressure fuel leaks and an A/C compressor that tried to jump off its mount every summer, it was a darn good car.

But getting back to your problem, the other respondents have already given you good advice. I just want to explain your comment, "...the guy @ the auto parts store said it could be the points, but i thought the points were in the distributor, which i thought was *after* the ignition coil in this equation...."

In fact, the process by which a spark is made at the plugs makes two* passages through the distributor -- and thus the distributor actually is a two-part* device:
First, low voltage current (i.e., 12 volts when "cranking", and about 6 volts when running, because of the ballast resistor) passes through points in the lower part of the distributor (seen underneath the rotor), and then out to the primary circuit (in other words, the "input") of the ignition coil.
Second, the high voltage output of the secondary circuit of the ignition coil passes into the top of the distributor and gets passed around (via the rotor and contacts under the cap) in succession to the wires going to the six spark plugs.

So, the distributor is involved in two* ways -- because both steps have to be synchronized with the position of the engine's crankshaft, and the distributor can serve both because it is mechanically linked to the crankshaft (actually, to the camshaft which is linked via the timing chain to the crankshaft, but who's counting?)

I hope this explains the "...the guy @ the auto parts store..." who said that the points were "before" the ignition coil. They are.

[ * Okay, the purists are going to gang up on me. For them, I acknowledge that there is a third role of the distributor -- in certain F.I. engines, the distributor also has the pickup to control the action of the fuel injectors, something else that has to be synchronized with the crankshaft -- see this trend, crankshaft and distributor? But I didn't want to confuse the picture with this additional, third element, so I didn't state this outright.]