you don't have a plastic positive terminal cover on that positive post ?
it's stock equipment.
I use that, plus a thick piece of rubber on top of the battery, and dabs of
silicone to hold things where they belong sometimes too.

quite dumb of them to put a metal battery ( or screws ) cover fractions of
an inch from 600 amps of hot battery power.  You can arc weld with that
power, that's how much power is in a good starting battery.

If that ever shorts out ...... ( and example of german engineering that is
only designed to work right when it IS right  .....no margins for anything
else )
and if you don't have a battery cut off switch .....
it's gonna be a lot of fun unscrewing red hot battery cover screws.
........hoping the are not fuse-welded into place.
while you're hoping a fire doesn't start .....
or ...........if you've even seen this.........whole melted wiring
harnesses.

at least you found it now, and not some much worse time later !

----- Original Message -----
From: "neil n" <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 3:56 PM
Subject: Devils in the Details

> Hi all.
>
> In dealing with the install of a CEL light for my Jetta swap, had the
> starter battery disconnected.
>
> Upon installing the battery lid, I was screwing down the last screw
> (forward LH one) and saw/heard a little spark. I knew right away what
> happened. The screw shorted out with positive. Sure enough, found a
> little hole in casing of the wire that comes from alternator.
>
> Yeesh.  <grin>
>
> Detail: over 2 years ago, I had installed new screws for this lid.
> Obviously longer than OEM
>
> Hadn't noticed the spark before, but who knows if it was shorting out
> before?
>
> Details. And stick to OEM if possible.  ;)
>
> Neil.
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines