Ok, Thought I'd give everyone an update as I am sure someone else may find this useful:
After pulling the sheet metal and following all of the wires, I did find 2 spots where a wire had been rubbed bare. Fixed these problems and the fuse still blew and when it did, it blew instantly. I was able to get a copy of the electrical diagram from our local dealer and they appeared to be wires going to the (-) terminal.
The battery did start to heat up, but had to run it for a good while before it started heating up. As stated here, the voltage regulator was bad. The alternator has a built in regulator, but it can be ordered. I ordered it from my local JD dealer only to find it was $139 ! Which threw me into sticker shock, so I opted to pay the re-stocking fee and spend $159 on a new alternator that comes with a 1 year warranty. Much better deal than spending $139 to fix an old alternator and have no warranty I thought.
The new alternator now pumped out 14 vdc and then fell into the 13's once it ran a bit.... AND .... The battery no longer heated up. However - This fuse still blew.
At this point I was ready to begin purchasing complete wire harnesses, but they are not cheap. I looked at the wiring diagram and never suspected the starting circuit as it always started right up an never had an issue. It would blow with or without the tractor running any time the key switch was on. So I pulled the whole dash apart, unhooked all the connectors from the clusters and pulled that whole rat's nest apart in there. I did find something of note... there was a relay that just had one wire going to it (+) and then a Jumper going off to some other location. This relay had no other wires hooked to it, so I suspect someone has been in here and unhooked something or it was to be used for an option this tractor does not have. The odd thing is, this relay was not bolted down and it was just hanging in there free to bounce around. (Could this be the source of this mysterious problem I wondered). But since I was this far, I continued on and found nothing else that appeared as though it could cause a problem. I continued on through the other side of the firewall and found the wire going to the starter relay (A16 on the diagram) post 86 loose. So I tightened it up. I don't think it could cause the blown fuse problem, but noted it here anyway.
Sun was shining, Dew was off the grass and it looks like no rain till Tuesday, so I buttoned everything up and headed out to put 12 acres down. Fuse held this time, so I suspect that relay that was loose inside the dash may very well be the source of this whole mess. I am certain the previous owner had been hacking into the wiring harnesses under the dash and everything inside there is a total mess. Looks like I may have my winter project to clean this up. The 2355 seems like it has the potential to be a very nice unit once everything is brought back up to factory condition. The Hi-Lo feature was nice putting down Alfalfa today and is the first time I actually had the ole girl out doing some actual work.
