'77 Bus - Fried Ground Wire? (The One By The Coil Wire)

[Sluggo]

Here's an odd one.

The small harness that contains the Oil Pressure Switch wire and Coil wire also has a 3rd wire that is brown. On my '72 this wire is grounded to the engine block. So that is where I put it on my '77.

But no, no, no, didn't work out, did it? Ya can't do these kinds of assumptions. You can't with a half-decade spread between vehicles.

Whatchadoo in a case like that, is go directly to your wiring diagram for the '77 bus to discover that the wire in question used to go to the diagnostic connector. . . IIRC . . . seeing as I do not have the wiring diagram in my possession at this time.
Colinhowhelpfulwasthat?

The large red wire goes to B+ on the alternator and then exits as a black wire (my "mystery wire" from another thread) and then to the diagnostic connector.

The small red wire is the one I fried. It goes to the 16 amp fuse holder and then to the fan relay. Wouldn't have been a problem if VW didn't use more of an oxblood than red which I saw as brown when only barely faded.

[Amskeptic]

Here's an odd one.

The small harness that contains the Oil Pressure Switch wire and Coil wire also has a 3rd wire that is brown. On my '72 this wire is grounded to the engine block. So that is where I put it on my '77.

But no, no, no, didn't work out, did it? Ya can't do these kinds of assumptions. You can't with a half-decade spread between vehicles.

Whatchadoo in a case like that, is go directly to your wiring diagram for the '77 bus to discover that the wire in question used to go to the diagnostic connector. . . IIRC . . . seeing as I do not have the wiring diagram in my possession at this time.
Colinhowhelpfulwasthat?

The large red wire goes to B+ on the alternator and then exits as a black wire (my "mystery wire" from another thread) and then to the diagnostic connector.

The small red wire is the one I fried. It goes to the 16 amp fuse holder and then to the fan relay. Wouldn't have been a problem if VW didn't use more of an oxblood than red which I saw as brown when only barely faded.

Now you are confusing the heck out of me. I saw nothing about any big red wire in the mystery wire in the coil/oil pressure switch harness question.

The small red wire you speak of that goes to the inline fuse is for the heater blower and it originates on the starter solenoid and terminates at the heater relay. Are you saying that it was inside the coil (+) and O/P wire harness? If you ground that sucker, you bet you are going to enjoy an episode of Melt That Harness.
Colin?

[Sluggo]

Now you are confusing the heck out of me. I saw nothing about any big red wire in the mystery wire in the coil/oil pressure switch harness question.

The small red wire you speak of that goes to the inline fuse is for the heater blower and it originates on the starter solenoid and terminates at the heater relay. Are you saying that it was inside the coil (+) and O/P wire harness? If you ground that sucker, you bet you are going to enjoy an episode of Melt That Harness.
Colin?

Sorry. I do that.

I didn't mention the 6mm red wire that becomes black after the B+ alt in that thread because I just discovered this myself. The one I fried is the smaller 2.5mm wire that feeds the fan relay.

The fan power wire was running through that harness. Now it's more of a burned melty blob than a harness. Surprisingly, it looks like it didn't melt the wires around it. It just melted to them. Except for one small portion of the oil pressure light wire as it exits the harness. I'll be cutting open the harness from the coil + wire to the starter this weekend and inspecting/replacing wires. At least it didn't go all the way to the front. When I removed the fried wire from the system yesterday I was able to hook up my battery and test all my lights, signals and added accessories. Everything worked except for the gauge illumination lights. Must be burned out because the other lights I attached to those wires (added gauge lights and blowfish) all worked. My alarm even worked! It's weird how a semi-catastrophic mistake can make a small victory seem so great. I was dancing when my lights came on.