well ive had the stang sitting in the garage with all the dash taken out for about two weeks now and i go to start it and the battery seems to be dead. but my lights work and my heater light and im currently installing some led gauge lights for my stock dash and its pissing me off cause i thought it was the bulbs and now im thinking this dead battery thing has something to do with not having enough juice to light up the gauges since their 5xled. the blinkers work only when there is no headlights turned on and once i pull out on the switch my blinkers stop working.
so is this my problem do you think for the gauges not lighting up?

 

does it try to start?

 

Try the horn. If they don't blow the battery is dead, which may or may not be your problem.
If it's dead, before you look for any other malfunctions, charge it.

 

yeah it trys to work but it wont. but my main concern is getting the lights to work and i think that might be why the dash isnt working if not then i installed it wrong. and i jumped it with my new mustang and it started but it wont stay charged

 

How do you know it won't stay charged?
Do you have a voltmeter? This would be much easier with one.

Disconnect both battery cables from the dead battery. Hook the jumper cables between the new car's battery and the '65's battery cables. Positive to positive, negative to negative. Make sure they aren't touching each other or anything metallic. That effectively puts the new car's battery in the old car. See if the horn works in the old car. If it does (it should) see if the lights work. If they do great, the battery in the '65 is just dead. If they don't something is wrong, and it's probably a short which would also explain why the battery went dead.

 

You need to start with a good battery (no dead cells) and good alternator. Then work fron there. Make sure check all the grounds as you go along asthis seems to be the source of a lot ofproblems.

 

I agree with Oxnard,try what he says jumping direct to the battery cables,if the lights,horn,etc work you have a bad battery,if not you probably have a bad ground somewhere!!