94 s-10 2.2L. There is a short somewhere and when you turn the key over the engine light clicks and flickers and all accessories, headlights, radio won't work, and when I try to start the truck, the black wire from the harness, which grounds, catch fire

you will need a wire diagram and trace each wire - one has come loose. try alldatadiy.com.

could it be the ignition switch gone bad?

has anybody been in the wiring for some reason? no factory wiring will cause a fire inless some thing has been tamper with. that's what recalls are all about.

the wiring has not been tampered with all and this is the only problem I have had with the truck in 5 years

Whenever I turned the key over, the engine light flickers on and off and is pinging. If you push the clutch in and try to start the truck, then all power is killed and all the gauges and everything go dead. Or, if you have the key turned over and try to turn the lights on, then all the power is killed and the gauges go dead. Radio, fuel pump, etc flickers on and off, but anything straight wired to the battery itself works fine. But, if you happen to turn the steering wheel either way, the gauges and everything go back to normal. However, when I tried to crank the truck, it did not crank and smoke was coming from underneath the steering wheel. I took the cover off and there is a harness there. There is a black wire (in the harness) that plugs into the harness and from there it grounds out to the steering column. This is the wire that caught fire. I tried to start the truck again to double check the problem and that ground wire gets fire red hot. If you have any ideas please let me know.

check all the grouds from batt.. block and body, ect.. if block ground is loose/corroded it will pull the ground from body or harness.

I found out that it is the turn signal harness. The black wire on the bundle feeding the turn signal harness is burnt up, along with the ground wire on the turn signal side of the harness that grounds to the steering column. Any ideas where the bundle feeding the turn signal harness is coming from because it disappears into a box underneath the radio? Also, could a short inside the steering column for the turn signals cause all the power to be killed when trying to start the truck or is the problem most likely in the bundle leading to the turn signal harness. Thank you sir.

if that wire got hot down in the harness it could of melted into another.

i think there might have been a recall on that switch, now i think about it. some thing to do with a wire tie. call dealer with your vin handy and ask. let us know. mws919