whats up with the ABS pump control

[xtriggerman]

I was doing wheel control arm replacements & to coil springs on my new to me 97 and when I pulled the left fender pan over to tie up the old air line, I saw the ABS motor wire insulation coverings completely melted away. I ordered a brand new unit on Ebay from Sparks auto and they sent me a used POS just like I have. So I will get a refund on that but it seems this was a problem on these cars? The fuse should pop before a melt down like this happens. I only drove the car home from where I bought it and I didn't have any check engine lights. With the wire coatings melted off, do these motors still function they way they should? Or are the ABS motors toast when this happens? I see Dodge intrepid's of 2000 used virtually the same type of pump. Can a person swap out the motors?

 

[xtriggerman]

Looking in to this a little further, I found the last year 98's had upgraded the motor wire insulator to a joined black rubber sleeve with a double wing clip connector from the motor. These used units are pretty expensive if you can find them. I would assume the wires on the earlier model or motor were under engineered for their task leading to a melt down of insulators. The cheapest available "similar" in nearly every way is a unit off a 2000/01 VW Jetta VR6. There are 2 valve bodies used in the VW. Our MKVIII's use the long valve body that was used in the VR6 and some others. Most VW's had the short valve bodies. The Longs can still be had new for over $1200! I'm curious if these would work as a straight up swap in since the plugs are identical to the 98 Ford version or at very least the motors can be swapped in leaving the valve body in place. I have a VW unit coming off Ebay for 40 bucks shipped.
One way or another, the bare wires have got to go.