one of my wires from the solenoid melted after I put the negative cable back on after doing some work it ran for 5 miles then just quit it turns over but will not start has spark and fuel it turns over like it has lost some power would a compression problem cause it not to start or do I have a short somewhere and is there an easy way to tell if i have compression it's a 93 ranger so the timing is set factory so I can eliminate that I did change the solenoid but still just turns over and will not startI was thinking possibly compression but why would it have ran for the time it did and then just quit?

 

Could be the new head gasket has failed. Do a compression check!

 

What kind of work were you doing to it before you put the negative cable back on? Sounds like something may have been wired up backwards but not enough information yet? Did it run OK before you did the work?