went to check my lites on my car today so i could take it to car show this weekend and no tail lites or marker lites,then went to start it and nothing not even a buzzer.its a brand new battery so i checked that 12.54 volts.dont have no idea where to check next ,ignition switch or light switch or what elce is there?

 

When was the battery installed and was it working with the new battery?

Or was the battery installed and it has not worked after installing the new battery?

If it has not worked after installing the new battery, check to be sure it is installed correctly.

If it did work, then stopped working, then measure with a volt meter from ground on the battery to wherever the + cable goes. You would get +12 at the battery on the + as you did, but follow that wire to where it goes and see if you are also getting + past the connector.

Then do the opposite. Place a multimeter test lead on the plus and the other on a body ground. This would test that the ground (-) has a good connection to the body. Then test the engine block for a good ground connection.

Then what is the service history of this vehicle? Was it used to jump start another vehicle and the cables placed backwards? Battery installed backwards? Do tell all!

Because main wires have "fusible links" in them. The main wires will basically break if there is a main short circuit.

 

thanks for the quick responce .history car ran put it in garage last spring and did some body work and repainted it . put the car all back togather this spring and drove it around the block several times to check things out and one eveaning i wakled around it and checked the lights to see how many bulbs i needed to get ,parked the car in the other side of my garage and its been sitting for about 3 weeks and i finaly got licenes plates and light bulbs .opened the door and got in and tryed starting it and nothing ,noticed that when i turn the key to on possion the dome light goes out .did all the volt meter tests every thing checked out the same??

 

Well the battery should have 12 something volts with the ignition on, or the headlights on, etc. A load on the battery.

If you place a load on the battery and it drops down quite a bit in voltage, then try charging the battery.

If you fully charge the battery and it still does this, then it is a bad battery.

If you have a good battery and nothing comes on, then bad connection and see post above...

 

tryed charging battery ,and even put charger in start mod.then i had a very week dash light .but when i turn the key dome light goes out and still nothing .pulled ignition switch out ,and light switch.will go tothe city some time to replace them .someone said they might be bad .so when i get them replaced i will do the voltage drop test. thank you very much i will let you know how i come out.

 

You say you have a new battery.
If you put a voltmeter (or test light) on it (directly on the posts) and it reads around 12 volts when you try to crank, your battery is good.
I would closely inspect the cable terminals on the battery, they commonly develop small resistance that doesn't matter for small loads (dome light) but causes a big voltage drop with high loads (starter).

Hope this helps.
Lou

 

hay billy got the new ingition switch in and car starts.but i still to replace headlight switch because i have no tail lights when i turn the switch on ,but ihave bilinkers ,backup ,and brake lights.but no clearance lights.