Clean them anyway, wire brush, side of a screwdriver blade, baking soda, whatever works for you. Used to have to clean the Cougar's clamps every month when I was driving it daily.

 

Had the same thing happen on friends work van.
It was the neg- cable @ the attach point to the frame was bad and lost contact.

 

Two words: Dielectric Grease.

 

yup same thing happened to me, the inside of the battery cables were corroded. right where they attach to the terminal on the battery. they were only getting 4 volts so i was getting no starting power

 

Positive cable is brand new, I'll go ahead and replace neg also. Thanks for all the info guys, I'll update probably tomorrow.

 

+ ∞
put it on all the contacts, plug wires, everything, it never hurts anything, and it will save you plenty of frustration now and down the road, money also, i don't know how many times i've had to replace plug wires on any of my dad's cars cause he's too ignorant to put grease on them.

 

Ok, new positive and neg batt cables; nothing. New voltage regulator, nothing. Battery checked, good....

Anyone?

 

Short, or maybe the ground strap has come off of the body/engine?

 

Wiring isnt difficult on these cars, so it should be fairly easy to find your problem, get your test light or pick one up for $10 or if your really strapped make one....
Hook the clamp to the body, then probe the positive terminal, if it doesn't light its a bad ground.
If it does light then hook the clamp to the positive terminal and check connections all around until it drops off, there lies the problem.

 

If the car has a distributor with points and the points burned up the car will die COMPLETELY.