Beetle won't start, ignition smoking.

[Checkers]

Hey everyone, long story short.
We borrowed an awesome 1971 Convertible Beetle to ride away from our wedding in and after staying at the motel for the night, it wouldn't start.
I turned the ignition and it started smoking heavily from underneath, I quickly shut it off an disconnected the battery.
Here's the only wire I could find that was totally melted.

(The black and yellow one, center, over the top of the hose.)


Upon some inspection, I found that this wire was disconnected, would that have anything to do with it?


Any help would be greatly appreciated!




EDIT: Response on TS.

That inline fuse is for the fresh air fan. If it is disconnected it shouldn't affect anything else.

The yellow/black wire goes from the ignition switch to the light switch. It provides power to the headlights only when the ignition is on (via the dimmer relay).

For the wire to melt, something must have shorted to ground upstream of a fuse or else a fuse is jumped.

The ignition switch may be fried. It is a one-year only part.

I happened to purchase a new ignition switch and install it in my '71 Convertible today.

Thanks for the info man. I forgot to mention that when we arrived to the motel, I pushed the headlight switch in and it pushed through/into the dash and shorted out, yet the marker lights remained on, so I disconnected the battery quickly so I could enjoy my wedding night haha.

So in the morning, I reconnected the battery and the marker lights came back on and the ignition started smoking.

Does that help at all?
And would a bad ignition just start smoking?

[Ramrod]

Tony,
Here are wiring diagrams, hope this helps.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/wiringt1.php

[choptopvolksrod]

the ignition switch its self coukd have shorted out and cause a wire to become hot. that happened in my 71 super. or the wires from the coil could have shorted, that also happened on a bug of mine, but if u find out what it was let me know cause thats the only 2 thing i can think of.