Fully Charged Battery - No Power - '53 Buick

Went to start the 'ol girl yesterday and she was trying for about 2 seconds and then everything went dead. Nothing. No lights. I thought after all the electrical work that I've been working on lately that I had run down the battery enough that trying to start her just killed the battery. I fully charged the battery overnight. I've been messing around with her all day today but I can't get anything. No headlights, turn signal, radio, dash lights, dome light all dead. I've tested everything with my voltmeter and everything is getting correct voltage. So power is travelling, but nothing is on. Very strange. Fuses and bulbs all still good. Any ideas what would cause this?

 

loose connection at the battery cables, or the battery just bit the big one

 

maybe a dead cell in the battery or a loose connection in the ignition system somewhere.

 

Fusible link? (if it has one)

 

If everything is getting power then it's time to start testing grounds from the battery forward including good engine and chassis grounds.

 

Bad connection at battery or main power source. Check batt cable connections first especially the ground.

 

Check to be sure you have a good ground to the engine block. I once had a loose ground cable at the engine block cause all sorts of electrical gremlins on my truck. I was ready to bring in an exorcist when I found the problem.

 

Voltage is travelling but power (amps) isn't.
See above posts for issues.
How old is the battery?

 

Had this a while back. Battery checked OK with my meter. Would not crank, so we put jumpers on. No go. Finally put the jumpers on the starter. Fired right up. Dicsconnected the jumpers and she dies. Did it several times. Died each time. Finally took it to a battery shop and he checked it out. It showed 12 volts but no power. Installed a new battery and problem solved. Iceman

 

what they said. still no go? do a trace to find out where you lose power. i once had a starter that lost ground through the case.ground jumper on back of case bad, front it fired right away.

 

finagled the ground cable at the chassis/motor mount and voila. lights and everything. the cable and battery are brand new, so it looks like I need sand the motor mount where the ground cable connects real good and tighten the cable real nice there as well. probably knock it loose when trying to start. thanks for your help guys!

 

bad ground??

 

See ya learn something everyday when ya have an old car!

 

heck yeah!

yep it was indeed bad ground. She fired right up after I cleaned the motor mount and tightened the ground cable there. However I lost my driver's side tail light - but that's a whole other problem I've been trying to figure out...