battary problem

I just installed my battaries on boat. They have fresh charge and are reading 12.77 and 12.70 volts. When installed I have no power at all. I have battary switch ....has anyone ever heard of these switches going bad? Or maybe i have a bad ground on block....any idea's...??? how can I check either?

[seapuppy]

get yourself a volt/ohm meter and start checking all the connections..grounds....connections at the switch...and also check the fusable link on the starter...if that blows...there will be no power anywhere...the other place to check is if the big red button breaker on top of the engine is popped...reset that...takes a lot of umph to get it to reset....

hope this helps....

Thanks....I did go out and buy volt meter today and will unfortunatly be putting it into use. I am going to check the switch first because at end of season last it was acting as though one battary was dead but when i removed them at end of season they both had charge. I think hope connections on battary switch are at fualt. I did not know about starter fuesible link. Thank you for your comments this will help

[Stressleave]

I would check the grounds first, they are easy, take a 12 volt test light and connect one end to the positive on the battery and start touching anything that is a ground; engine, grounding strip, one side of a light socket,etc.
As far as you thinking you had one battery dead note that each battery has it's own grounding point , so just one could be bad. Test from the positive on each battery with the battery switch off.

Good luck
Paul