Help! TS115A with Electrical Problems

[CBRanch]

The tractor was running fine, shredded couple of hundred acres. The next morning went to start the tractor and it turned over 2x and then there was no electrical at all. No lights, no instruments, etc. I put a charger on it and it zapped my charger. I figured the charger was bad, so i hooked up jumper cables from my truck to jump it. When i tried to jump it, when i touched the last jumper cable it sparked a lot. It was like a welding spark. I checked all the cables, made sure nothing was touching and then tried to connect the jumper cable again and it sparked so bad i couldn't get it connected. i removed the battery and tried to go straight from the truck to the tractor battery cables and same thing, sparked like a mother.

Took battery in to Interstate and they said the battery was bad. Took a new battery out and tried to install and again couldn't get it connected because spark so bad.

I checked all of the fuses, and all look fine. Checked the battery cables and all are fine. We traced them to the starter and all look fine.

I know there is a short somewhere but for the life of us we cannot figure it out. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[TractorTech]

Sounds like a short in or at the starter. Did you remove the cable and wires from the battery post of the solenoid? Try doing so and touch your jumper to solenoid post. If nothing, then try touching to the harness power cables one at a time to isolate whether it is the starter or some other problem.
If it arcs on the solenoid post, isolate the solenoid by disconnecting cable supplying power to the starter motor from the solenoid and touch the jumper to the motor cable. If the motor spins and no arc, then the solenoid is shorted.