Fire under the master cylinder of '98 Explorer 5.0. Help ID what fried?

[vetski179]

Yours truly F'd up when working on brakes. Put rags under the master cylinder to catch dripping brake fluid. Forget to remove them. They burnt up and took some stuff with them. Thankfully, aside from partial melting of plastic wire covering, it looks like the wires inside the covers are intact, and no dash lights are on. Brakes work great. I'll need a new dipstick, an inner fender skirt, and need to re-wrap the wires with new plastic sheathing. The one concern is the wire that snakes around the front of the driver's side head and goes somewhere. See picture 20220328_121736. That one is completely gone. Where does that go? Thank you in advance.

 

[joney]

SOHC? Would that be the infamous cruise control wire that goes to the master cylinder switch? Not saying that was the cause of the fire, but Ford recalled & replaced them back in '09

 

[Mbrooks420]

SOHC? Would that be the infamous cruise control wire that goes to the master cylinder switch? Not saying that was the cause of the fire, but Ford recalled & replaced them back in '09

It was rags used to collect leaking brake fluid, and they burned up because they were sitting on the exhaust manifold.

 

[Mbrooks420]

How many wires were damaged?

 

[vetski179]

How many wires were damaged?

Yes, it was the rags that caught fire as they were on the exhaust manifold. The only wire gone is the one coming from front of the engine, around the driver's side head, and going rearward. It's shown in the 1st picture. That one gone, burned, melted. All the otheres are ok, just a little worse for wear.

 

[joney]

It was rags used to collect leaking brake fluid, and they burned up because they were sitting on the exhaust manifold.

Yep, caught that. Just looking for the mystery wire.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

SOHC? Would that be the infamous cruise control wire that goes to the master cylinder switch? Not saying that was the cause of the fire, but Ford recalled & replaced them back in '09

think he said he has a 5.0... ill take a peek at my sohc soon and see if ive got that

 

[Mbrooks420]

think he said he has a 5.0... ill take a peek at my sohc soon and see if ive got that

The 5.0s were also recalled for the same issue.

 

[vetski179]

This wasn't the master cylinder issue that was subject to the recall. It was my silly mistake of leaving the rags. That's what caused it.

 

[CDW6212R]

Check those fuel lines, those two are shown in the 3rd picture, and they got burned quite a lot. Most of those should be SS line, but there is an internal liner that could melt given enough heat. Remove all of the melted plastic coverings and check the inside lines and wires carefully.

 

[vetski179]

I found the 'wire' that fried. Wasn't a wire after all, it was a small vacuum line. Didn't seem to affect anything before or after fixing, but at least the mystery is solved. Thanks for your help.