At 12:47 PM 6/16/2010, Peter DiFalco wrote:
>Now that I'm looking at it with Denni's comment - yes, copper that has that
>degree of verdigris has been oxidizing for some time. Could an animal have
>chewed through the insulation?

You'll be pleased to know that immediately after the magic smoke came
pouring out, the wires were annealed dead soft and oxidized to a
lovely shade of burnt umber.  The relay box was welded shut because
wire had melted into the cover.

The destruction would have been more thorough except that the faulted
wire (power steering switch feed, don't get me started on feeding
signal inputs straight from a car battery) fused and broke.

Yours,
d