Burning Wires!!

Capgun_Slim · Post by **Capgun_Slim** » Thu May 03, 2007 7:10 pm

I'm hoping the title will get some attention. I'll be brief. Wiring is not my thing. Suspensions and the usual mechanical stuff are. Anyway, there's a little box right up alongside of the dash, near the wiper motor area, but seperate from everything. There look to be 6 wire connections to this box. When I pull the headlight knob 2 clicks, to get the headlights on, everything is peachy keen. If I just pull the knob 1 click for the marker lights, they come on, but 1 of the wires connected to this box, burns and smokes! Needless to say this scares the poop out of me. I disconnected the wire that's frying, then tried pulling the knob just one click again for marker lights, thinking that might solve the problem. Well, then the wire next to it started frying. I turned it off again, and now I'm just shaking my head. What the hell is wrong? Pull the knob all the way to 2 clicks, no problems, pull it just one click and here comes the smoke. Any help out here please!! BTW it's a 66' Beetle that has been converted to 12 volt.

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Fri May 04, 2007 9:46 am

I don't have my bentley in front of me... sounds like a dead short (power directly to ground)...

Couple of options
-One of the terminals may have fallen off and grounded to the chassis
-wire rubbed through the jacket and is dead grounded to the chassis.

Speedy Jim · Post by **Speedy Jim** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:38 pm

A rectangular black box?

If so, that is the flasher/hazard relay.
The terminal numbers are molded into the thing.
Find the terminal # and the wire color.

There is no connection from marker/parking lights to the flasher relay.

As MNAirHead suggested, something"unusual" has happened and
as many clues as possible need to be unearthed.

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Mon May 07, 2007 9:21 am

Any updates on this?

Capgun_Slim · Post by **Capgun_Slim** » Sat May 12, 2007 9:48 pm

Sorry, I have been to busy lately to update. The box is rectangular, but not black, but more like a gold anodized. I'm going to take it to a local automotive electrical place and see if they can fix it for a reasonable price. I'll let you all know what it ended up being, as soon as I get it done. Any more suggestions would be great in the interim though. Thanks...

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Mon May 14, 2007 5:31 am

Not sure of your local market..

I've had SUPER luck with hotrod alt/gen/starter rebuilders fixing this stuff.

I"ve had marginal with the "automotive electric" folks.

I'm unsure if your part is SWR, Bosch or an other vendor... this may help find a rebuild resource.

Capgun_Slim · Post by **Capgun_Slim** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:12 pm

Sorry it's been so long. I went through hell, with an electrical place here in town, just to find out, myself, that it was a shorted wire on the front passenger headlight. Idiots didn't even look at my car the whole time it was there, which was well over a month BTW, and kept telling me they couldn't find anything. (When I found the short myself, is when I knew, they haden't even looked at it) JERKS. Anyway, they charged me nothing at least, and I fixed it myself. Guess I shoulda looked into the matter a little closer myself, and saved a lot of wasted time and phone calls.

Still no excuse for those Idiots at the Electrical shop...

Post by **2088 bob** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:51 am

Sorry to hear you had a bad time with your local auto electrical guy .There are bad apples in every basket ,but lets not tar everyone of them with the same brush

Iam glad you found your problem though For the rest of us could you go into just a little more detail was wire pinched ,rotted off , insulation cracked had there been some work done in that area ,accident damage these questions sometimes come into play when diagnosing a problem like this

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:42 am

Interested too - what did you find..