Taking the plunge

Here's my question now: I don't see any glaring faults in the wiring containing the start wire and the wires out of the fuse in question. Is it possible that the battery has been drained from my grounded attempts at starting and so it only has enough juice to crank when the gauges are disconnected? It doesn't seem like they would draw enough juice for this but I figured I'd ask. The battery read about 12.6 volts when disconnected which seems normal.