Shortly before my tranny died I started having brake light and turn signal
light problems; I blew a couple of fuses, and the turn signals developed
gremlins and finally stopped working altogether. The dash signal light
indicator comes on steady when you activate the turn signals in either
direction, and the emergency flashers only work on the passenger side. There
was an aftermarket 'third brake light' that never worked.
Now that I'm mobile and legal again I'm going through some of the 'lesser'
items on the priority list. I decided to pull and clean each light/cluster
and then see what issues remained. The front turn signals looked good, so I
moved to the back; this is what I found behind the driver's rear cluster:

http://picasaweb.google.com/garciasghostvw/BrakeWiringDamage#

Holy smokes.

I've read of course about the trailer pig tail wiring adapter that Vanagons
require but I never gave it much thought as I don't plan to try to pull
anything with this van with the stock drive train. I guess one of the POs
never heard about the adapter.

On the one hand it's always nice to find the/a problem quickly and easily,
on the other hand... geez.

Cya,
Robert