Sunland has no power

[winny]

Found a wonderful 1977 Dodge. Sportsmem Sunland. Went to check it out. Fell in love with it. Now it started with a jump. Motor sounded strong. All lights all worked fine. However, after it was turnef off.we tried to start it again it acted like it was going to start but no luck. Put the jumper cables on and nothing. No sound, lights horn. Not a sound. Any thoughts on what's wrong (

[winny]

so should I change the ground wire to the battery and perhaps maybe get a new battery think that may fix the problem?

[Joe Turner]

check connections at battery, starter, (postive) and engine block(other end of ground)

[winny]

thank you tomorrow when there is more light and I have a new battery with me I will check all of that and get back to you you've been most helpful have a great day

[Rich Thomas]

I would add to pull both battery terminals and clean both the post and the post connector.

[Matthew Tritt]

Yeah. Since it started easily the first time, I'd focus on the terminal ends of the battery cables. Often they are the cheezy after-market variety with a cadmium plated bolt and wire clamp that develop rust, which can't bee seen until taking them apart. The best battery cables are the type with the terminals cast around the copper conductor. Only problem is that it's hard to find anything but the crappy variety in auto parts houses. You can easily pinpoint the problems with a GOOD multimeter by checking resistance between battery posts and all points of connection for each cable. Having a high quality multimeter is absolutely essential for all owners of old vehicles.

[winny]

than you I will look into that ASAP. going to try again tonight. Wish me luck! will let everyone know what happens. W

[John "T" Nordhoff]

  Sometimes wimpy jumper cables and/or weak wimpy jumper cable clamps don't get a good enough tight clean contact to work. I usually wiggle and dig them into the lead battery terminals on BOTH the jumper and jumped vehicle to get them working. Id give the battery a good charge and many auto parts stores will do a load test on them for free. If the battery is good and charged but still no cranking I suspect the cables or terminals or a bad ground connection. I remove, clean and wire brush, then re attach each cable and ground and connection.

  John T