[Scutty]

After a lengthy storage and recent carb work, I'm trying to get the backfiring and missing out of the engine. The car is a primarily stock, I'm told it has a hot cam, I'm running rebushed solex 40PIIs. The car has been in and out of storage and hasn't ever run well for the 4 years I've had it. I've recently replaced wires and plugs, cleaned and reworked carbs, I'm about to replace my 009 with an 050.

I noticed something while driving last evening. The tach drops off when the car misses and looses power. When the car runs fine (only lasts for 5-10 seconds) the tach is steady, but when the car sputters, the tach wavers violently from 1000 to 4000. I'm in gear and cruising at speed, so I know the actual engine speed is near constant.
The tach gets it's signal from the coil, right?, so does the wavering tach indicate the sputtering is caused by a bad coil? or condenser? or distributor?
Please give me all your thoughts for the driving the demon out of my prized possession.