Major failure in traffic

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Came the whole way up to Niagara Falls for "June Jitterbug" VW show, all was fine, driving home from dinner, car stalled in middle lane of traffic, just Died. We could smell something like a burning wire, and the plastic off of one of the coil wires was melted.Also, no matter how hard you try, the key will not turn in the ignition to let you start it, we jiggled the steering wheel back and forth many times. Had to get a tow back to hotel in Buffalo, NY. We are getting a rental in the morning to keep us going till we come up with a plan. Thoughts from anyone? Do you know anybody from here that has expertise? We traveled up with about 20 Pittsburgh cars, we are the 2nd casualty.

[germanbilly]

Have seen this many times. What happens is the wire from the coil, choke, fuel cut off valve grounds out and the wire to the ignition block on the back of the key burns up all the way from the engine to the switch and melts the wires and switch. This wire is not fused. The wire harness from the switch to the engine must be replaced and new switch installed. I always use tubing on these connections so if the come off the is no metal to touch anything.
GB

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The tow guy last nite recommended a fellow named "Howie", that works for the tow business shop. Had to get towed again this morning to the shop, Howie was there, took him 2 minutes to suggest that the ignition switch was bad, it was cracked and shorting internally. Got a new switch locally, so but the lock cylinder was also a little messed up, so now starting/stopping it with a screwdriver, and going to "June Jitterbug" show tomorrow, will get new lock cylinder, maybe a new housing for the steering column, and the PO had that a little torn up. Charged me 20.00 for the switch, don't worry about the tow. I gave the guy Tim at the shop an extra 20.00 to take Howie and him to lunch. Awesome old school kind of business ethics.

[Yarkle]

I put one of these on my VWs

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1484940
_________________
Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

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Thanks Yarkle will do for sure.

[Wildthings]

If you have burnt wires down stream from the ignition switch then a bad switch was probably not your original problem and you may just burn up any new switch you put in there. As germanbilly suggested you probably have a problem in one of the wires attached to the coil.

A U-Haul truck and a car trailer will get you home quickly with little hassle and is not that big of an expenditure.

[vwwestyman]

I've never looked at the routing of that coil wire, though I was aware that it was unfused.

If it really does attach to the fuse block like that ad says, why not just move the wire from the power side of the fuse block to the protected side?
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[mondshine]

Mine is set up like this:

It's just a simple in line fuse holder right at the ignition switch plug.