Please help - Deere 2320 short to ground

[BillBinNH]

Hi, I'm hoping someone may be able to help me. About 5 weeks ago I went to start up the 2320 to mow my lawn, but when I turned the key, I was met with no dash lights and no response from the tractor at all. After a ridiculous amount of searching, I found the fuse block and replaced a blown 10 amp fuse. All was well.

The following week, I was met with the same situation. Replaced the fuse, and I was on my way. And all was fine until this past Tuesday afternoon, when I went to mow again. This time, the engine started to turn over, then everything died. The 10 amp fuse was blown again, so I replaced it. This time it blew as soon as I turned the key. The next four blew immediately as well (apparently I don't learn quickly). I decided after a bit of searching the tractor that I was going to need a schematic in order to troubleshoot this problem. After scouring the interwebs, I coughed up $153 for a CD of the tech manual. So now I have a schematic, and my son helped me tear apart the dash and seat area to get to all the connections. First we disconnected each thing one at a time, checking to see if the short went away. When that was fruitless, we disconnected everything and left them disconnected. Still have a dead short of the solid red wire to ground.

BTW, the schematic isn't completely accurate; the 10 amp fuse that blows is called out as a 15 amp fuse. The 25 amp fuse is shown as a 40 amp fuse. The 4 diodes are shown as being in the same place, upper right behind the dash. two are there. There is another in the engine compartment under the fuel tank. and another (the one I was searching for) in the lower left behind a bundle of wires. I'm sure there is more, so I may have missed something important.

Before I start tracing the red wire through the harness, I was hoping someone else could share the benefit of their experience/wisdom.

Thanks in advance,

Bill

 

[Agvg]

Have you measured the short to the cable?

 

[mini14]

Buy a short detector, replace fuse with a breaker and trace the line till u find the short https://www.homedepot.com/p/GearWrench-Short-Circuit-Detector-2524D/204622150

 

[BillBinNH]

Have you measured the short to the cable?

The short measured less than half an ohm.

Bill

 

[BillBinNH]

Buy a short detector, replace fuse with a breaker and trace the line till u find the short https://www.homedepot.com/p/GearWrench-Short-Circuit-Detector-2524D/204622150

Thanks, that thing is cool! Would have come in handy.

So, here's an update. You do NOT want to see the state of my tractor right now. But I think I solved my problem. In the course of tracing out the red wire, I spotted a wire loom that went under the hydraulic line retainer plate at the bottom of the steering column. It didn't seem to me that it belonged there. After loosening the plate and extracting the wire loom, I noted how incredibly flat it was. Opening it, the wires appeared to be melted together. I managed to separate the wires, put in a new fuse, and I have dash lights! Amazing to me that a problem that was created at the factory seven or eight years ago only now raised its ugly head. Thanks for looking - hope this helps someone.

Bill