Distributor fire

[tjayj21]

'93 Ranger STX v6 4.0
Distributor caught fire today. When the distributor gets a current it heats up. It's probably just a short somewhere, but any other thought?

 

[franklin2]

Is it only doing it when cranking? If so, hows your large ground wire look to the battery? if it doesn't have a good connection, the starter will look for a ground somewhere else. Unfortunately, all the other grounds are small and will not handle the starter current.

 

[tjayj21]

The distributor heats up when it's getting power from the battery. It's hard for me to tell yet what really is the cause. I got it to a shop across the street from where I was and they said they'd check it out on Monday

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

A 93 4.0 will have a coil pack, not a distributor. If the coil pack is getting hot, there is either a problem with the wiring or the coil pack is bad. If you have a distributor instead of a coil pack, someone did something funky

 

[Uncle Gump]

Do you smell fuel?

One spark and you have fire!

Agreed... you have crank fired ignition. Coil pack caught fire. Not sure I've seen that.

Dead shorts will pop fuses/fusible links. No fire when that happens.

Pictures... follow up if you will please.

 

[tjayj21]

I didn't take any pictures and it'll be drivable today, I hope. And yes it is a coil pack.