No P0wer from Battery

[Ron McIntyre]

New battery cleaned terminals no lights horn. Generator was bench tested with cutout all good. Tried reversing cutout direction. Only 2 feet and cannot be reversed. What can be wrong

[nkaminar]

Use your multimeter on the DC volt setting to find the cause. Start at the battery and then move out to the starter switch on one end and the ground on the engine at the other end. New batteries can be bad. Try charging it with your battery maintainer.

[JayJay]

To supplement what nk suggests, I'd really concentrate on the ground side. Horn and lights operate through two separate ground paths. Hot to the horn goes through the steering column, the horn button and eventually through the light switch to ground on the frame. The lights go through the light switch to the lights, then are grounded through the connection to the light bar and from there to the frame. The fact that you are having trouble with both suggests a bad connection between the ground side of the battery and the frame.

How does your brake light work? Again, hot to the switch (which is open when the brake pedal is at rest), then through the bulb to the frame.

[Bill G]

You didn't mention starter. Does that turn over? Was the car working before the new battery? If the starter works and nothing else and if it has the fairly standard after-market fuse, check the fuse. Otherwise check all the wiring.

[chap52]

Grounding would be my first suspect also. Chap

[Kurt in NJ]

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New batteries can be bad and dead — check voltage at the posts then try starter or turning the lights on and check voltage

[Big hammer]

Question ; what would happen if when changing a battery ( old battery positive ground) IF the new battery ( new battery negative ground ) was installed reversed ?? Starter would crank th same way, lights wouldn’t care , ignition coil wouldn’t work as well, any fuses wouldn’t blow, would the horn work ? Would the battery be drained by the generator ?

[rotorwrench]

Most all acid based batteries are charged by the process known as the dry charge. This is done prior to assembly of the plates into the case. If a battery sets for too long on the shelf, it has to be charged back up to full capacity prior to putting it in service. If it's a wet cell type then it has to charged for a recommended period after it is serviced with electrolyte. Sealed jell cell and fiberglass mat types are charged during manufacture but still need to be top charged prior to going into service.

The only real way to judge the state of charge of a battery is with a high rate load tester. Wet cell types will respond to a hydrometer check but that may not indicate an internal problem between plates and terminals. It will either pass a load check or it won't. Most battery supply sources have a way to load check them.

[old31]

You might want to pick up a load tester.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tende...zcF9tdGY&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0FFT...cb911dc7c&th=1

[David in San Antonio]

If you don’t want to buy a load tester, many auto parts stores will load test your battery for free. Of course they want to sell you a new one.

[katy]

Originally Posted by Bill G

check the fuse.

Ditto

[FFOG]

I am working through a similar problem. I had no lights, no horn and nothing at all from the starter. I replaced the negative battery cable (to the starter switch) and now have lights and a horn as well as 6 volts everywhere it should be, but still nothing from the starter. The starter does get hot when I try to start the car, but without a sound. Really clean all of your battery connections, I used my Drexel with a sanding wheel and went over everything including where the braided grounding strap goes to the frame.

[Herb Concord Ca]

It the starter gets hot and it doesn't turn, you have an internal short in the starter, time to remove it and take it apart to see what's wrong.

[FFOG]

Thanks for the reply and info Herb, I am going to try and hand crank the engine a few revolutions (key off) and if that does work to free the Bendix I will pull the starter.