Thanks Mark (and Mike), that's pretty much exactly what I wanted to know. I
mentioned in an earlier post that my rad fan sounded weak, so perhaps this
is the cause... or I suppose the fan motor could be going as well, but I'll
be able to determine that better after I re-run the wire.
I used my Dremel wire brush to clean the crowns and to take the paint off of
the firewall where they go. I'll clean or replace the wire ends as needed
and reassemble with some dielectric grease to hopefully forestall future
corrosion. Maybe my signal lights will work after this... : /

Thanks again,
Cya,
Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
mark drillock
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 5:24 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Wiring damage- Pics

Yes, a bad ground connection heated up and melted things. That big brown
wire looks like the ground for the radiator fan motor, the highest amp
draw item in the vehicle if it is the larger motor used 86+ for A/C and
Syncro.

I usually pull the  damaged end of that fan ground wire back outside to
the area behind the upper grill. Then I put a ring terminal on it and
screw it down to bare metal is a location easily seen with the grill
off. This removes it from the ground crown.

Mark

Robert Fisher wrote:
> '87 GL: I pulled the two under-dash 'crown' ground points to clean and
> re-set them and this is what I saw:
>
>
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/garciasghostvw/WiringDamage#
> <http://picasaweb.google.com/garciasghostvw/WiringDamage>
>
>
>
> I guess I'm just lucky the yellow plastic didn't melt all the way through.
> Do y'all suppose that corrosion/bad connection was sufficient to create
> enough resistance to cause that much heat? There is a small battery drain
> but I'm not aware of any shorts or shorting episodes that would have
caused
> that.
>
> Was the fat brown wire connected to the farther crown (I may have pulled
it
> off while I was getting the crowns out)? Where's the other end of that
wire?
>
>
> I may pull and replace the entire thing if I can; there's no telling what
> other damage it has. Ugly... not good. : (
>
>
>
> Cya,
>
> Robert
>