I was trying to install a mechanical temp gauge and was up underneath the dash feeding the gauge tubing through the hole in the firewall and one of my friends who was helping me starts yelling. It'd been a long day and about every possible thing that could have gone wrong did. Spent entirely too long trying to find an adapter fitting for the gauge and dealing with incompetent auto shop workers etc etc. So I just plan on ignoring him plus I couldn't understand what he was yelling about until i hear the word fire. Thinking hes messing around, I continue to feed the tubing through the firewall. I knew there wasn't any way my engine was on fire.
Wrong. After about the third time he said there was a fire I get out to smack him, and theres flames billowing out from near the alternator, right under the far tip of the exhaust manifold.
After recovering from utter shock, I jump to get my bottle of water and dump it on the fire as quickly as I can. Luckily, it went out pretty easily. From what I could tell it looked like it originated near the inner most connector on the alternator near the bottom of it, right near the exhaust manifold.
At this point I'm not really sure what to think. No idea about the causes. The keys were not in the ignition and have had no other problems that I can think of that would be related to the issue besides the engine possibly running somewhat hot. My alternator seems to be working fine now and the car started back up fine after I got the fire put out.
Pretty disconcerting to say the least.
Any ideas?
cruiser88
hmm no ideas except go should go check the wire you was fishing, you might have fryed it in the process against the hot spot on the alternater. 
Linear Mode
