Sold it a few weeks ago to a friend. 1992 5.0 hatch with 117K miles. 7 months before I sold it I replaced the battery and external voltage regulator. Other than that it has seen no real electrical work. Then he buys it and does some work to the distributor among other things.

He says the battery went dead last week so he charged it back up and left it disconnected for 3 days. Then he connects it, drives for 10 minutes. Parks it in the driveway, and 20 minutes later someone's banging on the door yelling that it's on fire. Car is a total loss. Upon inspection he thinks it was a short in the fusable link between alternator and battery whatever the heck that means.

Anyone ever heard of this on a fox body before? What could he have done to it for this to happen or could the issue have existed while I owned it as well? I'll post pics as soon as he sends them to me.

Also, no need to comment on the cruise control deactivation switch. That issue is not relevant.

I have an 89 5.0 hatch and had a similar experience. Apparently there is no fusable link between the alternator and the battery. One summer day, back in College Station, my battery died. I went to wally world and bought a new one and put it in. I drove the car and noticed the blinker was a bit slow, so I figured I'd test the alternator after lunch. I went to Panda Express and ordered some food. Right after I got my food, someone came running in and asked if anyone had a blue mustang. I said yes and he said my car was on fire. I ran out and popped the hood and a guy working at the restraunt had a fire extinguisher quickly put it out. In the meantime, someone had called the fire dept, so they rolled up along with several cop cars. Pretty big scene.

I ended up pulling it back to the house I was at that summer and fixing it myself. Had to replace several hoses, alternator, and a few sensors. A/C lines were trashed, compressor was ok. I caught it fairly quickly, so I saved myself a lot of damage. I've heard of guys getting the alternators off of the 94 and up cars. Apparently the alternators have built in fuses that will blow instead of having the alt overload and fry.

Look on the bright side, at least you sold it before it happened.

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Anyone ever heard of this on a fox body before?

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Yes, it happened to a friend of mine but I don't remember why.

It's a mustang, who cares? [/chevy and more recently, the BMW guys]

A Corvette would have burned up alot faster and for really not much more money.

[This message has been edited by Goose (edited 8/28/2007 11:17a).]

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A Corvette would have burned up alot faster and for really not much more money.

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I don’t give a damn that your car’s on fire
It ain’t none of my concern
And I don’t really care that you think I’m a liar
I know it’s just cause you’re getting burned

It ain’t none of my concern
‘Cause I’m watching your mustang burn

I know what you’re thinking man your heart is sinking
Your car’s going up in flames
And it’s driving you crazy just thinking that maybe
Someone like me is to blame

It ain’t none of my concern
‘Cause I’m watching your mustang burn

She was a vision the perfect dimension of
What you thought true love would be
And she looked so good while you were under her hood
While your girlfriend was smiling at me
What did you expect me to do
I ain’t got no ties to you
It ain’t none of my concern
‘Cause I’m watching your mustang burn

I can't believe nobody's asked if the license plate was:

RHP 997

Ok, I'm an rtard...wtf is with that license plate #, H-wood?

Trivia about album cover

I think Robert Earl Keen says that the grass fire that burned up his car at the Texas Motor Speedway was caused by a TransAm or some other musclecar parking in the tall, dry grass with hot headers...or maybe I'm making that up.

Heh, just found a post that claims that this is the contact sheet for that fire REK talks about:

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Anyone who's been to a Robert Earl Keen show might have heard him tell the story of his 1974 Fourth of July. Exhausted from the heat and the tequila, Keen took a little afternoon nap while at Willie Nelson's annual picnic. He awoke to pillars of smoke and an announcement from the stage that there were a few cars on fire in the parking lot. Keen vividly recalls the voice over the loudspeaker as it began identifying the burning vehicles: "The first winner is ... RHP-997." His car.

Check out the cover of Keen's upcoming CD, Picnic, and there it is -- a picture of two cars ablaze. The one on the right bears license plate RHP-997.

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[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 8/28/2007 4:04p).]

Big Rob,

I think in the famous Robert Earl Keen story (on one of his albums) the announcer calls out that license plate and REK all of the sudden realizes that it is his car burning up. There are a couple of Aggie references in that recording as well - you should check it out. I can't remember what song that story is prelude to...

It's the intro to The Road Goes on Forever. He gets to talking about The Highwaymen which leads him to his Willie story.

The Robert Earl Keen story dredges up some similar memories from Bonfire Cut 1988. When I was a fish, one of the Zips in A-Company parked his car in some tall grass when we got to cut site. I was driving my Radical 1975 Chevy K-5 Blazer, so no problem for me of course .

While we were f'n logs, we saw a plume of smoke. The catalytic converter on his car had started a grass fire and torched his car. They put the grass fire out, but the car was done.

Later that day, the Infantry Band Drum Major dropped a tree on a fish's truck. I'll never forget those words - "Oh S***, it's gonna hit a car". To add insult to injury, that fish later quit the Corps (he was in the Regiment, I don't remember which outfit).

Unfortunately, neither of those class of '89 guys are with us anymore. Former Drum Major Kevin Roberts died in a plane crash in 1999, the other guy (whose car caught fire) committed suicide in 2000. It was really awkward sitting next to his father at Muster in College Station that year.

I remember that day well. We got a great class pic on the burned up car.

I'm going to burn ( lol )that song onto a cd for him. He may buy it back from the salvage/insurance company and rebuild it. Everything from the firewall forward is toast, the interior has smoke damage, and everything would need to be re-wired but he did want a project car. I'm giving him 10% of the purchase price back just because the whole situation kinda sucks for him. Nothing I did caused it. Nothing he did caused it. It just happened, two weeks after he bought it no less. If I do some digging in boxes I think I have the REK t-shirt with the burning cars on the front and I could give him that as well.

Hollywood BQ....yeah I remember the tree falling on the car...even more, the reaction from one of the redpots that showed up a few minutes later. Dude went completly ape****!

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After

Yeouch!

Engine fires igniting in a parked car caused by alternator/regulator/battery malfunction were not uncommon in early day experience with alternators (vice generators)and continued through the 80s. I figured the problem had been solved before 90s models.

Whether internal or external regulators were in use, the alternator output feed going to the regulator was directed through a diode (like a one-way check valve.) If the diode went out, after the ignition was shut off and the alternator was dead, battery voltage would feed back through the regulator into the alternator and try to turn the alternator into a motor. The result was a red hot alternator and usually a fire. The fusible link you mentioned between the alternator and regulator would have prevented this calamity. Ford design, not your fault (unless someone at one time or other had replaced the link with a straight wire.)

A faulty regulator, internal or external, could cause almost the same problem. Exciter voltage from the battery through the regulator powers the field coil on the alternator. The regulator controls this by disconnecting the field voltage from the battery when the battery voltage is higher than the alternator output voltage. If that control circuit fails in the regulator battery voltage will continue to flow to the alternator field ... the field in this case can heat up, maybe not enough to start a fire but if it melts some other wiring it can get a fire started. Usually, this situation is the source of the battery going dead overnight for no visible reason but the battery testing good when troubleshooting ... a head scratching pain in the butt until you change the alternator if the regulator is internal ... or the external regulator.

I am sure there are other malfuntions in the charging system that could bring about the same predicament ... but all would be under the heading of battery feedback.