If the timing is not the problem, then two things that I might add.
Make sure the plugs are dry. When they get soaked, they can act up. Pull them and you can dry them with a heat gun or light application of a propane torch.
Also, if you ran it on regular (ethanol) blend fuel last year, and that fuel was sitting in the carb, there are two little diaphragms on the carb that can get effected by the ethanol. They are held on with 4 screws each, and are on the front and back of the carb as it is located on the engine.
I have also seen crappy coils. The original autolite coils were good, but towards the end more and more of the stuff came from offshore. There were bad coils, and the caps had to have the holes enlarged to get them to fit in the covers. You can usually tell the bad caps as guys will have installed them with just 2 screws and the rotor will rub and break on the now offset cap.
I still think that your timing is the problem.
In all my years, I did see one engine break the phonelic timing gear under the front cover. But that was rare in my books. It was on an in-service Jeep at that. I used to hoard all Jeep parts back then, and the repair was done in about an hour or two. I worked faster back then....today that would likely be an all day event.
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