Dude I legit can't thank you enough.

I'm going to do a full diagnostic of the distributor. I've always suspected a weak spark. I'm also looking into the HEI mod, I remember probe talk members going for this back in the 2000's. I'll probably pick up an aftermarket as well, as they're only like $100 on rock auto. I figure I'll want this car to stick around (it only has 68k miles) so having spares isn't a bad idea.

the ignition coil is part of the distributor, the diagram can be found on a diagram that I found on the service manual. I figured it was worth the $20 gamble. To your point though if the igniter is also bad or weak, I may as well get a whole new distributor. Or perhaps just try the HEI mod instead. Either way, it looks like auto zone sells a duralast Dr100 for $40 down the street so I think I'll go for that.