Heymccall, thanks again for all your help, here's a recap of what I found:
I pulled the controller as mentioned above and bench wired power and ground (several required) and hooked up a light bulb to some of the gauge light outputs. During this test, I thought I was missing something because I couldn't get anything to happen. That was until I dropped a screw driver on the controller and then it started working momentarily. I thought I may have had a loose wire so I checked everything over but couldn't find an issue so I tapped the controller again and again it started working.
I took the controller back to the machine and installed it. It wasn't working so I gave it a tap and the dash lights would come on. The more I tapped, the more different combinations of lights would come on/ flash/ buzzer sound etc. At one point it wouldn't STOP working so I decided to use the machine for the rest of the day without issue. The next next day however, I had to again hit the controller quite a few times to get the dash lights to come on. So in the end this made me feel confident the controller was at fault and not a harness issue.
Luckily my parts dealer only charged $925 for the controller which I felt better about because I went in thinking it was $1700 (mine was a different part number than you mentioned above).
So anyone experiencing this issue or if your stuck somewhere, try to give a good whack under the seat behind your left leg if you sitting there and maybe you can get the controller to come back to life for a little while. Also you could remove the stop solenoid and make a little cover for it (or else it will leak a little oil). You will just need to stick something in there like a nail to shut off the machine. It will run fine, however rabbit and decel likely won't work.
And lastly, I decided to rubber mount the new controller. I drilled the mounting holes out just shy of 1/2", installed rubber grommets and made copper sleeves to go inside so the bolts could still be tightened down. I figure the vibration/jarring around in the machine might be causing this issue in the controllers because mine does not have any visibly burnt components. Also the controller is fed multiple ground wires and is not grounded thru the mounting bolts in case anyone was thinking that.
Hope this all helps someone else out there.
I pulled the controller as mentioned above and bench wired power and ground (several required) and hooked up a light bulb to some of the gauge light outputs. During this test, I thought I was missing something because I couldn't get anything to happen. That was until I dropped a screw driver on the controller and then it started working momentarily. I thought I may have had a loose wire so I checked everything over but couldn't find an issue so I tapped the controller again and again it started working.
I took the controller back to the machine and installed it. It wasn't working so I gave it a tap and the dash lights would come on. The more I tapped, the more different combinations of lights would come on/ flash/ buzzer sound etc. At one point it wouldn't STOP working so I decided to use the machine for the rest of the day without issue. The next next day however, I had to again hit the controller quite a few times to get the dash lights to come on. So in the end this made me feel confident the controller was at fault and not a harness issue.
Luckily my parts dealer only charged $925 for the controller which I felt better about because I went in thinking it was $1700 (mine was a different part number than you mentioned above).
So anyone experiencing this issue or if your stuck somewhere, try to give a good whack under the seat behind your left leg if you sitting there and maybe you can get the controller to come back to life for a little while. Also you could remove the stop solenoid and make a little cover for it (or else it will leak a little oil). You will just need to stick something in there like a nail to shut off the machine. It will run fine, however rabbit and decel likely won't work.
And lastly, I decided to rubber mount the new controller. I drilled the mounting holes out just shy of 1/2", installed rubber grommets and made copper sleeves to go inside so the bolts could still be tightened down. I figure the vibration/jarring around in the machine might be causing this issue in the controllers because mine does not have any visibly burnt components. Also the controller is fed multiple ground wires and is not grounded thru the mounting bolts in case anyone was thinking that.
Hope this all helps someone else out there.