I have a 1971 cutlass holiday sedan with a 403 from a 1979 delta 88 and it won't start. About 2 weeks ago I went out to start it and it cranks fine but just won't start. I noticed a plug wire was disconnected and a little corroded so I replaced all of them but still no start. Recently I have been hearing what seems to be a vaccume leak coming from the back of the motor that u can hear mostly after cranking the motor. I'm not sure what it is and I'm also not sure why it won't start. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks.

 

Hi, you need to see if your getting gas and have spark.

 

This is kind of interesting as these things normally don't just fall off all by themselves. Any idea how this happened? You say you've heard a vacuum leak recently, so apparently the car has been running recently. But, as always, an engine needs three things to start. Spark, compression, and fuel. Given your discovery of problems with the plug wiring, maybe you should look further at the electrical system. Coil? Distributor? Coil to distributor wire (or did you change that)? Have you tried removing a plug wire and holding it up to the engine while cranking it to see if there is spark?

 

Welcome to CO. I am sure our members can help you figure it out. Basic tune-up items will probably fix you up.

 

Well you see, when it quit running about two weeks ago I was getting ready to go to school it started for a second then shut off and wouldn't start again so I had to take another car. When I got home I looked under the hood and one wire was off while several others were loose. The car does backfire sometimes and also when u crank it for a short while it almost smells like it's flooded. Anyhow I'm not sure where the coil is exactly as the car is a 71 and the motor is a 79 there are alot of mixed parts on it. So far I changed the plug wires and tried everything to see if there was a spark and I heard nothing. Also I can only hear what sounds like a vacuum leak after I crank it. Thanks again I will try all of these new ideas.

 

Wow. More pieces of information that you didn't tell us before.

Backfiring can be caused by either too rich or too lean a fuel/air mixture. Do you know where, exactly, it's backfiring? Through the exhaust system, or through the air cleaner? The former indicates too lean while the latter too rich. If it backfires while you're trying to start it, the ignition timing could be too advanced.

In essence, you need to do what Oldsguy said, and that is give the car a complete tune-up including checking the engine timing. You've put in new plug wires, and if they were corroded, it suggests that other parts of the ignition system could need changing as well. Might need to adjust the carburetor settings if you're smelling fuel and the engine floods. You might also have a damaged carburetor float. Rebuilding the carburetor might be in your future, too.

I read that the 403 came in only 1% of all Delta 88s in 1979. It was much more common in the 98, appearing in 46% of those that year. The most common Delta 88 engine that year was the 5.7 Liter (350), with almost 2/3 of them having this engine.

 

The dist cap is easy to take apart. look for corrosion etc. around the coil...

 

Welcome aboard

X 2 on the complete tune up

 

And while the cap is loose, rotate the crank to 0* (TDC) and make sure the disty rotor is able to point to the #1 spark plug wire.
(Might have to turn the crank up to 2 turns.)
If not, the timing chain might have jumped or is worn.

Loose wires are odd. Do you know somone who would have played the "rearrange the wires" trick on ya?

 

I'm wondering 1. What distributor...points or HEI? 2. When you replaced the wires what firing order did you use and what direction around the cap? 3. have you checked to make sure the order and direction are correct for the orientation of the rotor? (refer to Lady72nRob71's post)