I know everybody is busy so I will be brief as possible..

Wife hopped in the 94 150 4x4 auto. It just clicked and she saw a little smoke coming from under the hood on the passenger side by the cowl.

When I inspected it I saw the the grounding strap from the engine to the firewall got hot enough to start melting the tape covering it and started to melt into the heater housing.

I inspected everything I could see using a mirror, etc and saw nothing it could have shorted out against!

I tried to jump the starter manually and it wouldn't do a thing but spark when trying to us a screwdriver to cross the terminals on the starter....

OK, replaced the starter and now it will crank over but will not start. It's like there is no power somewhere. I checked every fuse under the hood and in the PM.

What could have caused the ground strap to get hot? when the starter shorted out and all the juice grounded out back to the battery through the strap?

What else did it take out when that happened, or did something else happen 1st?

Please, need some ideas. I'm old school and hate the electronics on new cars and trucks.

 

Sounds like you have a bad body ground or engine ground.
Where is the Neg battery cable going to?
It needs to go to the engine, it does not need to go to the frame unless you pull a trailer.

The Body ground:


The engine ground:


/