NEED HELP! starting problem

[undrcroft]

"92 Cam 4cyl" i started the car up this morning and after work this afternoon and it started up fine. I get home and put the floorboard carpet back in the car. I didn't notice anything getting messed with under the dash area when i put the carpet back in but i go to start the car up and it starts up and turns over pretty normally, but then dies about 2-3 seconds later. I then saw that one of the two cables i have going to the starter had come out of the battery terminal. I reconnect it and the car seemed to start up fine. I may have stopped it too quickly but i thought it kept going like normal and it turned over great. I go and start it up again a minute later and it's doing the same thing. The alternator connections look fine the distributor and coil wires should be fine, and the intake is normal. What could be wrong? I really need this car right now. any help would be appreciated.

[Nick]

well right now i can't visualise what you're talking about, but those connections should be well made, make sure they're screwed/clipped/crimped in

[undrcroft]

i probably shouldn't have mentioned the terminals. The ground and hot wires are all good at both ends. The battery is giving the car juice, the car just can't keep running after it turns over and rev's for like 2-3 seconds. It slowly revs down. I've had different mechanics say either fuel pump or fuel filter, and one said it might have to do with the spark plug wires being bad because of oil on them, which i do have a little oil leak from a head gasket prob, but there is barely any oil on the bottom end of the spark plug wire tube. If it slowly dies and rev's down is that probably a fuel line problem?

[Nick]

damn, that's a huge pain in the ass, old cars were easy to diagnose, new cars with obd II are easy, but there was that awkward pain in the arse generation

without poking around at it, i have no clue

you can test your fuel pump/sending unit if you have a multimeter