GM / General Motors: '78 cadillac seville, here I go again...

OK guys, so I am past the point of making myself look like an idiot, and
throwing myself at the mercy and good will of all the present pro mechanics
here. I am a hopeless DIY'er, damn the consequences or the cost (doh!).

In an attempt to get this car back on the road again, I have taken the
advice of dsi and made sure that both fuel pumps are functioning. I have
pulled the throttle body, removed and checked; fuel lines running from the
tank to the throttle body, removed the fuel filter* and both the fuel pumps
(in tank and chassis mounted), removed the gas tank (cleaned/checked),
replaced/checked the fuel pump relay/grounds. I also popped the spark plugs
and inspected visually; I noticed the distinct smell of unburned gas, which
leads me to believe no spark to plugs; as I am a novice (or less than
novice) mechanic, how would I check to see if plugs have spark?

After I removed all the vaccum lines (I did my best to mark these with
colored tape, but with all the gas/grease...) I'm not too sure I did this
correctly. Is there any resource on line that would explain/graphically
depic the correct vaccum line attachment?

*if, just hypothetically, I accidentally reversed the fuel filter
connects(connected the out fuel line to the port marked "in" and so on...)
what affect, if any, would this have?

I greatly appreciate any advice/help from anyone who can help!
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!
Ian

There are several ways:

1.The safest is to pull the distributer cap and look for cracks of carbon
scoring. If any of these are present, you have to replace it because it
isn't working properly.

2.Next is to simply pull the plug and get a friend to crank the engine. Try
not to zap yourself.

3.If spark is the problem with the engine, you can solve it by closing the
gap on the plugs a little or getting a hotter coil.

However, the problem is more likely a badly adjusted carburetor giving the
engine too much gas. If the metal slugs protecting the mixture screws on the
throttle body haven't been knocked off and monkeyed with, you should tear it
down and check the primary float valve as the number one culprit... American
gas is pretty horrible, and I remember on several occasions having to
rebuild carbs that got nasty gunky buildups as a result of using bad US
gasoline.


"ipla68" <net> wrote in message
news:Eaywb.38938$news.prodigy.com... 
mechanics 
pumps 
plugs 
which