a bad day....
 

well since the Jetta was in an accident 3 weeks ago, I had to get the fasty & the bug registered so I would have some spare vehicles to drive. Well yesterday, I drove the beetle and had an electrical fire going up a bridge. Whole car filled up with smoke (I had the windows shut because it was raining). Shut the car off, turned off the lights and wipers and got the hell out of the car to see what was going on. Looks like the wiring from the rear half of the car back is homemade. Some wires under the seat have melted together. Had to get the car towed home, fortunately Haggerts saved the day and sent a flatbed for free :D

that sucks!!! sorry to hear it. i have made sure that my battery is easy access to yank the ground if i smell something. just have to reach behind me, pull a hanlde to pull up a panel and pull the cable. lessoned learned from Overspray's little incident at BugJam last year.

hope it is an easy fix for you. i am working on wiring for the new engine install (internal regulator and relocating the CDI and coil) as we speak.

well it didnt look too bad when I pulled the seat up. But the big problem is that whoever owned this car previously really botched the wiring up. It looks homemade from the battery all the way to the engine. Non of it looks like the stock harness (except up front)

That sucks Joe!!!

But an excellent "opportunity" for a wiring tech article :) Well when you get lemons you have to make some lemonade... But still depressing.

I am pretty sure you can still get a stock or stock repoop wire harness and just use what is needed without rewiring the whole car.

Good Luck!

well I wanted to rewire the whole car, but I wanted to wait til I painted it. So I may pick up a good used harness if I can find one.

That sux. At least it is a simple harness, You could pick up some wire(different colors, and gauges) and make up the rear part of the harness. Sounds like either something shorted to ground or had the wrong gauge wire(to small).