1998 Chevy Lumina car won't turnover

Start by measuring battery voltage or watch the brightness of the headlights or dome lights when you try to crank the engine. Do the lights dim or go out? Do you hear the starter relay click under the hood?

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Take a peek at the smaller black wire that goes from the battery negative cable to the body. If it's loose or corroded, it will cause everything to be dead. Your observation about no lights should make this relatively simple as long as there aren't two different problems.

Next, you'll need a cheap digital voltmeter or a test light. Test lights are faster but voltmeters are more accurate. We don't need accuracy here. We need to find where we have something or nothing. Start with the test light clip lead, (or meter probe) on one battery terminal, and the test light probe, (or other meter probe) on the other battery terminal. The light will light up or the voltmeter should read around 12.6 volts for a fully charged battery. Move the probe that's on the black negative battery cable to the body. You'll have to find a clean rust-free bolt on the body. The probe won't read through paint. If you still get a bright light or 12 volts there, move the other probe from the red positive battery cable to the next point. Disregard the fat wire going to the starter for now. Look for a different, smaller wire going to an under-hood fuse box. If the wire is bolted to that box, there should be a terminal there that you can move the probe to.

We probably shouldn't overlook the larger of the two wires on the starter. GM used to like to tap off there with many other smaller wires. It wouldn't hurt to put the probe on that terminal and the other one on the body to be sure that heavy red cable is good. Since you replaced the starter, double-check that there aren't any smaller wires that got left off that big terminal.

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