My '76 98 has no eletrical power. It has been in storage for several months so i knew the battery would be dead. I trickle-charged the battery but nothing happened - the interior lights wouldn't even come on. Some kind of fuse issue maybe?

 

1. Is the battery actually fully charged? Does the engine run or even crank? If not, do you hear anything at all when you turn the key? No clicks or anything?

2. If NOTHING electrical works (radio, headlights, interior lights, windshield wipers, etc.) and the battery is fully charged, I'd suspect a bad connection somewhere, and I'd start right at the battery terminals. Make sure all connections are tight and that all wires ends are bright and shiny copper.

Make sure all ground straps are present, clean, and tight.

It would unlikely to be fuses because there are lots of fuses controlling many of those electrical devices, and the likelihood that all of them would be blown at the same time is very small.

Start with the simple, basic stuff and work from there.

 

What is the voltage at the battery after charging it? Check the voltage when you turn on the lights, too. If it drops a lot, the battery is probably shot.
After they are left to discharge a lot, they often do not recover, esp. if it was already a few years old.

If not that, do a visual check on all of your wiring to see if rodents went to chewing...

 

If the battery went dead, then it probably needs a good deep cycle charge for about 3 hours.

 

I say battery issue as well. If it was something else, you would still have some electric function

 

I agree with everyone above, wiring disconnected/chewed/corroded or battery isn't truly charged.

Have you hooked it up to another vehicle with some jumper cables to see if any of the electronics come on?