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So your engine runs, but not in gear, and a spare coil of unknown provenance makes the distributor smoke. The rest of your ignition gear is a year old.
I don’t know how much importance to put on the smoke-with-old-coil condition. Were it not for that your symptoms of no power in gear sound to me like crossed plug wires or a collapsed/blocked exhaust. But I think that regardless of the cause here, EI is a huge, easy, and relatively inexpensive upgrade.
So, I would make triple-sure your plugs are properly wired to the distributor in 1-2-4-3 order, check that each one is firing correctly by pulling off the plug wires one at a time and listening for engine roughness created by each removal, run new 12V wires to the coil, carefully wipe down and check the condition of the cap interior and rotor, lubricate the advance springs under the distributor plate, install the electronic ignition (wirebrushing off any rust off the plate in the process), and replace the coil with a new one in the process, making sure the engine continues to start after each step. Then test the timing those few degrees by loosening the bolt under the distributor and rotating to see if anything’s still borked up.
If the symptoms persist, congratulations, the engine still runs and you have EI in place but you need to look elsewhere...perhaps the exhaust.
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