B7800 Blowing Instrument cluster fuse

[tmacc51]

Hi- I have a 2004 B7800 and this is the first issue I've had with it. While stacking wood today I noticed my lights went out and my fuel/temp guage stopped working. The tractor continued to work fine. I shut it off to take a phone call and when I went to turn it back on, the only light that would come on the dash was the glow plug. but it would not turn over or anything. I checked the fuses and the 20A instrument fuse was blown. I replaced it, went to start it, not nothing happened and the fuse was blown again. Any ideas of where to go next? Thanks,
Tim

 

[tmacc51]

UPDATE...Replaced fuse again with the headlights off. Started back up, instruments working, but as soon as I turned on the lights, instruments stopped working and headlight never came on. I did a quick check on the headlight wires and they looked ok?, nothing chewed up or anything. Thoughts?
.

 

[BeezFun]

Welcome to forum. I'd say you've diagnosed your own problem, you have a short in headlight circuit. I'd try running without headlights for a bit just to confirm that's really the problem. Then you'll need to isolate each wire on the 12v side of the headlight circuit and see which one has continuity to ground. That's the wire with the short. Then trace it and see where the short is. You might try tracing the wire from ignition switch to the headlights and do a visual first, it might be mice chewing on something, or it could be rubbing.