Dash loom trouble.

Ok, so i've been working hard trying to get my 1983 mk1 gti with 2.0l 16v back on the road. I finally get it all running nicely after replacing, fuel lines, exhaust hangers, battery and starter motor etc. and after a quick trip 200yds up and down my private road, there was smoke inside the cock pit and lots of it! Turned out to be this……


This is the wiring at the rear of the headlight switch and it fried all the way down to the cigarette lighter area. Before i drove it, i noticed the wipers weren't moving and my concern is that i may have left the stalk on burning out the motor/wiring but not sure if i did or not. The wiring to the motor looks fine and all fuses are in tact. Any ideas on what i should be looking out for? Or is this the likely cause? Also i found a random brown wire near my headlight which i think was probably an earth to the fog lights which have now been removed, i randomly earthed this to the body, not sure if i should of done now, could this have any adverse effect? Any ideas as to what the problem may or may not be; gratefully received. The dash is now out and i can add more pictures if it helps? Thanks in advance.

Here's a pic of the random brown wire…

Should i remove it?
Other points to note, there is another connector inside the black tape, which again i think must be for the spotlights and also, i accidentally snipped a black wire whilst cutting a cable tie off but i fixed it back together with bullet connectors and wrapped it in the tape. Probably irrelevant, but i thought i'd throw in all the factors that may have changed since it was last on the road (two years ago). Other than this, i have changed the battery cable and starter motor….

Have i done anything wrong there? All red wires on one connection, other than the spade connector?

I had this problem with my mk1 too, it was simply shorting out on the bottom of my head unit when my lights where turned on.

The blue/white wire is for illumination, so i'd replace this making sure there's no shorts and you should be okay!!

Hope this helps  

Agree with Jeevs, this is for accessory illumination. Will do the heater controls, cigarette lighter bulb, radio, dashboard bulbs etc and lights in the three centre consul gauges if you have them.  Fault be within the car as opposed to under bonnet.  All the brown wires in a VW are earth connections. What you have is the accessory lights cable touching the chassis somewhere.

Thanks Gents, i think you've nailed it!! I had thrown a retro stereo in the hole, since i last drove it, naiively forgetting about the random bunch of unconnected wires below it. Some were taped up but i think one must have been exposed giving me the same trouble as Jeevs had. Thanks for your input Gents!
 As for the wipers, i read on here somewhere, you can upgrade to a mk2/3 motor, so i may do this and grease up the spindles, hopefully that should sort it, they were shocking before they stopped working!
 More lessons learned. Thanks again chaps!! Appreciated.