Without vacuum advance you might not be idling on the idle circuit because the butterflies are too far open. If so, it will run VERY rich at idle. With vacuum advance it will increase timing at idle and raise the the RPM's allowing you to close the butterflies (using the idle set screw) enough for the car to run on the idle circuit. I cannot guarantee this is what's happening on your car but I had a similar problem recently and this helped.
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