Car Dead after fixing fuel guage Needle issue

[msjcanada]

PARK AVENUE ULTRA - 1997. - I disconnected the battery when leaving for an extended vacation at the end of last year and reconnected upon my return a week ago and found the fuel guage had jumped out of place behind the post next to 'E'. I followed instructions from this forum thread and managed to flip the needle back to position. I glued an additional plastic post on 'Full' side of the guage to prevent the needle from flipping over again in future. Closed the cluster and now the damn car wouldn't start. Nothing comes ON. Radio, horn, locks nothing works. The remote fob does not wok either. Checked all connectors behind the guage panel and on the dash, all looks OK. Looks like either the anti-theft device has kicked in OR the on-board computer needs to be re-set. Any idea what to look for or where to begin? (short of calling the dealer or towing the car there).

[aarcuda]

dont know for sure but at first glance, id say that something blew up. could be related to the fuel guage problem too. to explain, it could be that whatever caused the fuel gauge to crank around, overvoltaged the entire system and shorted something out.

other than that, maybe something behind the intrument pamnel is disconnected causing it not to start??? you had to take the instrument panel out to fix the problem right?

[msjcanada]

Thx aarcuda. After all - did not have to tow the car to the dealer. It turned out to be a much simpler issue. Stupid me over looked that altogether. The car battery was dead!. What makes it hard to understand that, the whole process took about 35 to 45 minutes, No lights were ON except the dome lights because the two front doors were open all the time while working on the dash. May be that was sufficient to drain the battery to the extent that nothing would work, as if the battery was disconnected. Sorry if I took anyone on a wild goose chase. Everything works fine now after charging the battery. (Battery is healthy and is less than 2 years old).