Had a small electrical fire in my 62

[HippyTom]

So I was taking my teenage daughter to school one morning last week. Got in the 62 Bug in the garage. Started the car, no problem. Then I flipped the toggle switch under the dash to turn the stereo on and the switch broke. Then the car started acting like it was dying and lights on the speedo flickering when smoke started pouring through the dash grill.

I shut off car, grabbed my fire extinguisher as I popped the hood latch. I opened the hood and smoke rolled out like crazy. Fortunately I had emptied the trunk and had the wiring cover laid down when I was adjusting the gas gauge a few days before. There was a ball of sparks flying and melted wire cover. I yanked the stereo wire and broke it. That stopped the fireworks. Then I disconnected the battery. I left it a couple days as work was wearing me out.

The toggle switch came apart and grounded out causing a short. The wire cover melted and melted a spot on another wire and the two wires were sparking like crazy. Right there above the gas tank is never a good place to have fireworks!!!

So I got a sealed pre-wired marine switch and rewired all the damaged wiring. I ran some different routes. Luckily nothing was fried, everything works, and no more fireworks.

Then I recovered my seats. Busy Bug day in the garage. The best therapy in the world!!!

[Eric&Barb]

Good to hear there was no big damage!!

Did/do you have a fuse before the switch. That should blow before wiring has to fry.
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[Cusser]

[HippyTom]

There's an inline fuse between the switch and the radio...guess I need to add another one on the other side of the switch.

I appreciate the idea!!!

[Eric&Barb]

Glad to help. Though you just need one fuse before the switch, even better near as possible where you are getting the power for the wire to the switch.
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[FranciscoVW]

The other day the same thing happened to me. The wire that goes to the light in the speedo grounded out, and the wire was glowing and the speedo cable was hot, so I disconnected the battery to prevent further damage. Good news is the car didn't burn down, bad news was the light switch was fried, but I had a spare.
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'61 Ragtop
Skrrrt

[Cusser]

In my 1970, in the 46 years I've owned it, the unfused wire to the coil burnt up while driving (did not burn the ignition switch though) and the unfused dimmer circuit to the instrument panel burnt up.

To this day the instrument panel lights are on whenever the ignition is switched on, as I wired it back in 1976.
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[bluebus86]

[herbie1200]

Dimmer instrument lighting is NOT FUSED.

The "fuse" action is by the dimmer potentiometer that shall burn if there is a shord in the dimmer light circuit.

[HippyTom]