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1965 Ford F250 Alternator Wires Caught Fire (PICS)

B

Beatles65

Member
Today I went out and started my 1965 Ford F250 Pickup. The last time I ran it she gave me issues on staying running. It started fine tonight and I ran it for a few minutes and it idled fine for a little bit then steadily got worse and then died and the alternator light came on. I then tried starting it again but it wouldn't and I noticed a burning smell so I opened the hood and saw the engine was on fire. I blew the fire out quick and removed the battery. The fire came from wires burning on the alternator that caught the built up grease next to it on fire. My question is what caused the wires to burn up? I will try and tear into it tomorrow to see what I find. Any advice would be great!

Thanks!
From Denton, Nebraska.
Andrew Kean
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I think if the voltage regulator is not working properly it could cause the alternator to put out too much voltage, thus overloading the wires, causing them to overheat and burn.
I hope if my original thought of the voltage regulator is wrong that someone else will correct me, but I'm pretty sure, its been a while since I worked on the older stuff.
 
could be lots of things, alternator itself , voltage regulator or a short somewhere else. It should have fusible links protecting the circuit feeding the alternator so they fail and prevent wiring from doing that.
 
looks like there laying on the exhaust manifold too that will for sure start a fire, also those mices and squirrles will do that too, they chew the insulation off of the wires, then the wires short to ground and burn
 
From this vantasge point it looks like some wires were making contact with the exhaust manifold... Main wire to ground like that and you get a lot of current.
I would expect the regulator and possibly the alternator to be bad at this point but you can rewire it and try it out. Usually a grounding like that will fry the reg and it will no longer control voltage. A good grounding will fry the diode trio in the alternator.

Rod
 

The wires APPEAR to be laying on the manifold. I don't think they are, and IF they are, it is probably because the heat from the fire caused them to sag and droop.

I'm guessing the fire got started because of either the mice chewing through the insulation, OR a defective voltage regulator.
 
lets see.. batterys are dead or very low. so alternator is charging full blast.

wires are old, cracked from lots of heat, and covered with grease.

wires are getting very very hot the finally the grease starts to smoke...

or


could be a shorted cell in the battery,

a bad voltage reg.

wires damaged due to heat and manifold damage and finally short

wires are damaged and starting to coorode so that half of the strands are broken, making the remaining wire carry too much current and run twice as hot.

on and on and on....
 
From my experience when a voltage regulator goes bad (excessive charging rate) on the older models like yours the first sign is a sulphur smell from the battery you won't soon forget. If you didn't have that, look for the bare wires shorting to ground or shorting to each other. Usually this is where wires are "stuck" together. The excessive amperage will make the small wire get hot and eventually melt the insulation. Make sure none of the wires are touching each other, start it up and check the voltage output at the battery terminals. You should see between 13.2 and 14.8 but some Ford models can go as high as 15.5 max. You may actually be undercharging and have a short. Diagnose the problem or have it diagnosed. I wouldn't throw parts at it. Hope this helps. Gerard
 
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