Loom Burnout due to faulty relay.

 So today I thought I'd fix a small electrical issue but unfortuneatly it nearly turned into a disaster!

I pulled the X relay out of my fuse box but as I put it back in the back of the fusebox nearly caught fire with a massive short. Luckily I hadn't tightened the battery terminals so was able to kill the electrics quickly after pulling the relay back out. I couldnt for the life of me work out what had happened. All I did was pull the "X" relay and put it straight back in.

Luckily there was only one wire damaged which was an earth lead coming out of pin D22.  After fixing the cable I tried it again and the same happened. At this point most of the electrics had gone heywire. The ignition lights were permantly on and the fuel pump was running constant. I was fearing the worst and a proper head scratching session ensued!

I then took a closer look at the relay 17 which Id pulled and found one of the blades loose. After pulling the relay apart I found that the loose blade is meant to be held in place by a tiny rivot. The blade had come away from the rivot and as I pushed the relay into the board it must have pushed the broken blade up onto the load plate of the relay causing a direct short. Luckily no long term harm has been done and I have replaced the damaged cable and the relay.
Ive messed with these cars for over 30 years but this was a first for me.
1983 GTI BTW.
I guess what Im trying to pass over is stay safe and take the necessary precautions when messing with the electrics on these 40 year old cars. I always loosen the battery terminals when testing. 

Ouch.

lucky mate

Personally I have seen worse, as in the old days of wired backplanes and separate PCBs for everything.  I had a wire burn that went everywhere and melted others.  It took a long time 3 days to re-wire the back plane.

On cars it usually isn't as intricate as the old main frame days, but can be just as daunting.  

Here is my favorite photo for these issues.
 

Had a similar lucky escape. Mine was the alternator wire which had rubbed / burnt through under the engine. 😬😬😬

Hasty knocking on doors to get some tools allowed me to remove the battery terminals!!! 🥵🥵🥵

mmm toasty.

Briano1234 said

mmm toasty.

It raised a pulse at the side of the road!!! 🙄🤣