You're lucky that yours only smoked and didn't catch fire.

The louvers in the cowl (between the base of the windshield and the rear edge of the hood) on the 84 Ranger were slots about 3" or 4" long and 3/8" wide. I now have a 01 Ranger and it has a bunch of 1/8" holes punched in the cowl. Don't tell me Ford was not aware of the problem of leaves falling through the slots and getting into the blower chamber and then into the resistor.