I am trying to remotely help my dad diagnose and fix a 2004 Bobcat 553 that appears to have a short and is now dead. I'm looking for any ideas and suggestions that I can forward on to him. I have never seen this machine myself. He's located far from any dealers, so calling someone else over is not a realistic option. He's going to have to fix this himself. One night last week he parked it and the next morning it wouldn't start. When he tried to start it, it momentarily made clicking noises (but the engine did not turn) and then immediately electrically shut down (dashboard and headlights stopped working). (thermal shut-off?) I'm not sure where the clicks came from (starter solenoid, starter relay, or something else). After a while (perhaps hours or overnight) the electricals would start working again. Sometimes (when he was doing something else, not trying to start it or fix it) he noticed that the headlights were suddenly on (without the key in the ignition). But if he tried to start it again, it again electrically shut down and stayed shut down until some random time later. Unfortunately he has not been able to even turn the lights on in the past few days (possibly due to repair attempts?). Prior to shutdown he thinks that he remembers all of the lights on the BICS being on solid. Even without the key in the ignition, the black ground cable connected to the battery gets warm and if left connected the battery discharges. When the battery runs low, he charges it. He now keeps the battery disconnected when not trying to fix it. We guessed that it might be the starter motor, but it works great when connected directly to the battery. The starter solenoid *appears* to be working also. He has also cleaned several of the electrical connectors. What other possible problem could it be, and how would one go about debuging and fixing this problem? I see people with other models reporting error codes here, but since this model has an analog hourmeter I don't think that we can get an error code. If there is a way to get any error codes (other than lights flashing on the BICS)?