Good evening,

I just returned from a little afterwork ride - to be precise I was towed back home because my car caught fire!

I just had turned off the engine for a dinner break when I noticed strange, deflagrating noises from under the hood. So I popped it open and immediately smoke ascended from the passenger side engine bay. I moved around the car and saw flames coming from somewhere between the exhaust manifold and the engine. I quickly organized a bucket of water and was able to extinguish the flames. From what I could see, it was the starter cable that had caught fire. There was still some smoke and it smelled burnt but the situation seemed to be under control. When I got back onto the driver's seat in order to roll the windows up, I noticed that there was no more electricity, no ignition, nothing. I called the breakdown service and waited. Then I thought it would make sense to have a look at the battery in the trunk and when I opened it, it was full of smoke and I immediately saw the ground cable was literally burnt. I wanted to disconnect the battery to prevent further damage or even another fire, but the battery switch that the previous owner had installed was stuck, I could finally turn it off with force releasing some sparks.

I am back home now and I removed the battery from the car, it is still hot in the lower area. As mentioned, the trunk ground wire is melted and so is the battery switch. It must have gotten really hot in there. The starter cable is barely visible from above, but it doesn't look melted or burned, at least as far as I can see it. But it looks like the cable that goes to the jump start terminal in the engine bay is slightly damaged.

I must tell that I had some issues with the alternator and battery in the past, so I just had replaced the alternator, alternator to starter cable and the battery last year and had cleaned the earth points. And I also measered the battery cable and the starter to body cable and they seemed to be ok, so I assumed that new alternator had fixed my issue. At least it was delivering more voltage than the old one, but a couple of weeks ago, I noticed the new battery was low on voltage, so I hook it to a charger just yesterday and had it fully recharged. So I am wondering what exactly happened?

- Could it be the battery that short-circuited internally?
- A bad ground in the trunk?
- Bad starter cable?
- Another bad ground?
- Bad starter?

Thanks and best regards
Oliver

 

Can anybody tell me where to get these kind of connectors? It's the starter switch going from the engine harness to the starter.

 

I bought something very similar on Amazon:

 

I also found these kind of connectors but I think they are not exactly the same, that would probably mean I'd have to replace its counterpart as well, but I'd prefer to not to touch the engine harness. Is there any way of opening and reusing the old connector?

Since the battery ground wire in the trunk burned down some people recommended me to replace the whole battery+ cable that runs from the bulk head to the trunk. What do you think, is that necessary? I have looked behind the dash and some more spots on its way to the trunk and the cable still looks fine to me.

 

More than likely these are the same connectors used by Fords of the same era so check out some Ford parts maybe?

 

I think I found the right one! But the male side seems to be missing its inner clip.