So ive had my 2005 brute force for about a year now and never had any issues with it until the other night when I needed it. I just got off of it about a hour ago and when I went to restart it and it fired right up, I went to go turn the lights on and bumped the kill switch. I then went to go restart it again and nothing. Luckily it was dark out because I noticed a glow I could see through the plastics. I jumped off and sure enough my ground wire was glowing and sparking right where it bonds to the frame. Another note is my fuel pump never turned off once I turned the key off. It just kept running until I ripped the seat off and disconnected the battery. I got it to the house and started digging into it, the ground wire melted the whole length of the wire harness and every time I turn the key on I blow the 30amp main fuse. Does anyone have any idea where I should start troubleshooting? I am unsure if I should buy another harness incase that wasnt the issue to begin but instead the outcome of something else and id be ruining a new harness.

 

Sounds like your initial problem was a bad earth, so check the main, thick earth connections from battery neg to both engine and frame. However you also have a big "short to earth" from the pos side. Most likely that hot earth wire has melted onto a positive wire, so check if you can, the whole length of it for shorts onto another wire. As you wrote though, you could have a component that is shorting out. Check ignition switch first, most have pos and neg wires to them, so are a likely place for a short to occur. Next, disconnect wiring plugs to all components you can, pop in a new fuse switch ign on, if fuse blows it must be a wiring problem, if fuse doesn't blow, connect each component back up until one blows the fuse again. That must be the faulty one.

 

Thank you, I tore most of the harness apart last night and found that it was actually 3 ground wires that melted all the way from the front. I started working on replacing those wires and taping some hots that got a little insulation melted off in the process. I will check the ignition switch once I am home and have everything fixed up.