1982 Olds '88 407-V8 wont start!

[JeffBaker]

I'm looking at my neighbors car and wow....lemme give ya the rundown

This is a single mothers car and it hasn't ran for quite some time. Her other neighbor took the carb off and soaked it in gasoline and put it back on with some new parts...I'm not sure what he's done...I put new spark plugs in, new wires, and a new distributor cap. The car will not start....I have a couple of questions.

How do you adjust the timing on this car? What is the firing order? For all I know the wires are in the wrong order, I changed them in the order they were already in.

Assuming the car is getting fuel, and the starter is fine, other than the timing, any ideas what else it could be?

Any quick tips on messing with the carb? The only carbuerator I've worked on is on my lawnmower....but I'd like to think I'm fairly handy and can help out my neighbor...

Thanks!

Jeff

[R_WALDO_86]

I believe that your motor is a 307 and not a 407, probably just a typing mistake by you.. no big deal... If i were you i'd pick up a hayne's repair manual at autozone... i have one for my jeep, vw bug, and Delta 88. They go through a complete tear down and rebuild of every component.. i believe the book covers all rear wheel drive gm cars from like the seventies to 1990. It should be all the help you need... btw they are like 15 bucks

[W-44Olds]

Olds V 8 firing order 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 2. Bring the front left cyl which is number 1 up on compression stroke. And you can do this by pulling the plug out and putting a socket on the crank turning it clockwise and hear the air start to come out. Roll it slowly. Once I hear air I put my oil dip stick in the plug hole and roll it till it stops moving up.GO slow. Now once you got it on top dead pull the cap and see where the rotor button is pointing make that spot on the cap number 1 and use the 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 2 firing order. Then you can mess with turning it forward and backward to find the sweet spot. I always start with right in the middle. Then try a little each way.Once i get them started I idle up the carb to about 1500 rpm and slowly turn the distributor till it smooths out and set it there. Then idle it back down to about 750 rpms. I wish I had my hands on the car I could help you out better. I hope this kinda help.Some of this you may have already known I was just tryin to go from the start.