Volkswagen Forum - VW Forums for Volkwagen enthusiasts

ok, got my 74 super beetle, it died on the way home. so i was doing some work trying to figure out what is going on. I went to hook my battery back up, and i hooked the red cable to the positive, and the black to the negative of course. Not until about a minute later I realized the cables are reversed color! the negative cable is the red one! But how I realized this is that over on the left side where the cables go into the body, there was a white wiring harness looking thing that started smoking and getting real hot! i quickly disconnected the battery. Before this happened, when i turned the key on, both the engine and the oil light would turn on. now, even when the key is off, just the engine light is on. when i turn the key over, only the oil light comes on.....does anyone know how damaging this could have been and what it might have damaged if so?