Did I mess up my charging system (or worse)?

1995 Ford Taurus SHO 3.0L MTX

I listen to Karl on FTE (it's all his fault ;) and try to keep the batteries in these things fully charged; besides, this battery is ~4 years old, and its condition is kinda questionable, what with all the starter-motor swapping that *appears as* a dead battery I've been doing recently.

Small fire while the battery was on a charger (12V slow) and the positive cable shorted against something (the hood was closed on it, could have been the wind; much smoke was emanating from under there) but the fire quickly went out when I opened the hood and disconnected everything. All it was that burned was the insulation 1) on the charger's positive cable, and 2) on the body/ECM ground to the battery neg post.

Do you guys think this cooked the alternator or fusible links (or worse yet, the ECM)?

https://youtu.be/OP0h5_fUots

Morning, Chris.  I doubt you hurt your alternator.  I say that because I did something similar and didn't hurt my alternator.  I mounted my starter relay too close to the hood hinge and when I closed the hood fire and smoke ensued.  I melted a #10 wire totally and completely.  But the alternator was fine.

Hard to tell from either your post or the video which cable shorted out. It was only shown briefly in the video but it looked like the large cable coming directly off the positive battery post. And that shorted (via the battery charger clamp?) to the closed hood.

If that's the case, I think you are fine. Electricity follows the shortest path and really doesn't go anywhere else, so all the electric current was travelling through the short, I don't see why it would have affected anything else.

Cool engine, that SHO. I am putting one in my Lancia 037 Stradale project, in a mid-engine, longitudinal configuration, backed by a Porsche Boxster transmission. Glorious looking intake.

Thanks, guys. :)

I made a new video with some clarifications, I'm still learning this phone and all it can do. Didn't have to rotate this one at all, I have to figure out how to keep it this way.

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The "fire" was the plastic coverings on the charger's positive clamp, and the body-to-battery-ground cable, which also has a pigtail connection to the ECM but looks untouched by the ordeal.

Everybody says I should be fine, so thank you guys for your help. :)

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I'm Hopefully headed off to Bandimere Speedway here in a bit, my sister races there and she's getting something like L2-L7 fused in her back on Monday morning, this is likely to be her last race this season. :(

Anyway, the new video:

https://youtu.be/SV4CM2C8tco

OK, yeah that's a lot more clear. The path of the short was from the + battery post, to the charger clamp, to the hood, to the hinges, to the fender, to the body ground and back to the - post of the battery. I can see no reason why anything would have been fried other than the ground cable. Replace that (and the rubber/plastic on your charger clamp) and you should be good to go. Good luck!

Pete Whitstone wrote

OK, yeah that's a lot more clear. The path of the short was from the + battery post, to the charger clamp, to the hood, to the hinges, to the fender, to the body ground and back to the - post of the battery. I can see no reason why anything would have been fried other than the ground cable. Replace that (and the rubber/plastic on your charger clamp) and you should be good to go. Good luck!

Correctomundo, I even found where the hood got welded to the + clamp: