whats draining my battery? help!

got a battery problem with my 83 gti, its draining itself from somewhere and not holding any charge
i put a multimeter across the batt terminals and it melted the wires for it! not a good sign
going to change the alternator at the weekend if a mk2 golf one will fit it??

Melted the wires!!!! Think you were doing something wrong there.

Battery drain is one of those pain in the ass things there is no easy answer for.

You need to check 2 things firstly that your battery is charging, Voltmeter on the battery while the car is running to check for more than 12v from the battery.

Then the amp draw from the battery when the car is off, You need to make sure you dont have the int light on or anything so that you dont get a false reading.

You are best to have a look on youtube there are loads of videos that can help you, its much the same for any car pulling fuses one at a time looking for a drop in amps.

Type Parasitic Drain into google and you will find loads of stuff.