Needing expertise, hands & eyes on this truck before I go crazy

[rustytruck50]

I'm knocking on the door of my wits end. I cannot get my '72 to run like I know it can. It seemed to start last fall when the electrical gremlins visited. Got that fixed by a friend, who has gone off the grid & can't be reached for any more help. Next up was the fuel pump going out. Got that taken care of and it's not run completely right since. I figured the problem was the incorrectly installed HEI distributor. I attempted to fix that when I resealed the massive intake leak. The battery lead on the coil was broken at the wire & replaced the coil along with the crusty ignition module, cap & rotor. Worked & worked at setting the timing and found that the balancer was wrong and in bad shape. To the best of my understanding after a lot of reading on the forum, I think it's timed correctly, but I'm beginning to have doubts. It does a bit of bucking and surging above about 30 mph, labors between 50-60, cuts out entirely when it is put to the mat, comes back when I'm off the gas, pop's & backfires a bit through the carb on hard acceleration...wondering if my fuel pump is bad or wrong, but i matched it up to the old one first...pretty much a exorcism may be next. If there is anyone in the Omaha area that could come over and help me sort this out, I'd be forever indebted to them. The last thing I want to do is throw my hands up get rid of the truck because I am pretty frustrated. I did that one time before and later saw the car out and driving perfectly fine after I let it go. I'm officially outside of my pay grade, experience wise!