[Vwdiesel] no start, relay and a smoke puff

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

Interesting it lists that wire as going to the gp relay. It does but  
moreso it goes to the starter switch (circuit #50) it's a 12ga BK/R wire  and 
does go to the "power in sstart only" #50 terminal on the gp relay on  another 
page.
  The brown wire you fried sounds like a ground to one of the throttle  
switches.  If it's bare and shorted to the engine then that sounds like a  bad 
tranny ground.  Even if it looks good, pull the bolt and clean the  ground 
from the battery as well as where it contacts the transmission mount (I  
believe).
  To smoke a wire while cranking you're either running power to a  circuit 
that shouldn't have it, while the key is in the start position, or you  have 
a bad ground that's pulling power through what it can (other ground wires,  
hot wires going through a consumer that's not on so it's therefore 
grounded,  etc).  So something's hooked up wrong, shorted or not grounded.  Not  
grounded is the most common especially when it just suddenly or slowly, starts  
happening.
  Not fun necessarily but sounds like time to start chasing  circuits.
 
  Yes, the list's been really slow lately.
 I'll get back to all who've replied, hopefully this evening.
    Loren