Changing a wiring harness

[pplc]

Have a chance to buy a 185T that a neigbor has. It has had a history of blowing the 5 amp fuse in the engine bay fuse box. It instantly throws the brake lock on. It has been to a couple shops and one dealer who burned up the EIC panel and it had to be replaced. The third independent shop though they had it fixed and it worked for a month. I borrowed it , it worked great for 3 hours and the next day went 100 yards and blew again. It has been sitting in a machine shed for a year after being hauled on a roll back. It starts and runs, but the minute you even touch the seat with your hand it blows the fuse. It has to be a dead short because it has had up to a 20amp fuse and the same result. I am only assuming that that solenoid is a normally open solenoid and the short closes it. All solenoids have been replaced, seat switch, key switch etc.

It has new tracks and they cost about half of what I could buy it for. My question is can I replace the wiring harness without taking the cab, lift arms etc off? I have decent mechanical skills , but not sure if I have the needed assets to take lift arms , cab etc all the way off or not.

Thank you

 

[mrbb]

It sounds to me like there is known problem here with the seat safety and wiring
why now just back track these wires and find where its shorting, my guess is a mouse chewed thru some place and its rubbing and causing short

rather than re wiring a whole new harness in!

if you go to most any NH dealer web site they show you in schematic's the wiring diagrams, so you can see where all things run and can again follow yours and see??

I highly doubt the arms have to come off to do this! , doesn't the cab on this tilt???
that should expose most wires too!

 

[Shanmar]

The cab can roll forward. Booms up on locks, remove bolts at rear bottom of cab pillars and it can roll forward by pivoting on the front bolts. Will take something to roll it with. I've done it with another loader. You'll need 3-4 ft of blocks for the boom to rest on as it won't go all the way to the ground. Check if there are 1 or 2 bolts in the front pillars. If 2 remove the 1 logical one. The electric harnesses are designed to allow the roll. But I believe if it has heat/ac you'll have to deal with them. To raise the booms you can screw the lock out solenoids out of the valve block under shield between your feet or hot wire 12 volts to the one for the boom lift.
That said, I'm not sure you need to roll the cab to get to the harness. You will end up removing an awful lot of the interior. But I would get the boom up and parked somewhere in case you need to roll the cab.
I'd look closely at all wires you can see first including all the ones running around under the seat. Then start at one end of the main harness and start digging & checking as you go. I'd bet eventually you'll find something. Have to look closely. I'd also look closely at the fuse blocks and relay connectors. I had plenty of fights with corrosion in them.
Reading your post again, I'd start with taking a real hard look at the wires running to/from the seat safety and seat belt switches.
Don't think you can go wrong. The running engine alone is probably worth $3-4k.