[jlcalbre]

I have stove in a rental property that stopped working. The clock would only come on when one of the burners was turned on, though the burner would never actually heat up. I discovered that the black wire had completely burned into two pieces right at the terminal block in the back of the stove (see attched pic).

I can fix this pretty easily, but my concern is what could have caused this to happen in the first place? There is some evidence a something being spilled down the wall just above the plug. Could some sort of liquid gotten in there and caused that wire to overheat and burn up? I don't want replace the terminal block and pigtail, only to have this happen again and burn the house down. Thanks.

[denman]

Unplug the unit and check the terminal strip just to be sure it is OK.
If connections are corroded/pitted replace the terminal strip or clean them up with some fine sandpaper or emery cloth.
It is important that the connection be noce and clean.

The problem may have been in the unit from day one. Could have been a poor connector crimp or the connector was loose on the terminal strip. Both of these are a resistance so when current passes through the connection it heats up the wire.
This then degrades the connection further so a little more resistance which is a little more heat and so on and so on till the connection fails.

After replacing the line cord it would be a good idea to monitor the connection.
Turn the stove on and let it run for 5 minutes or so to see if the connection heats up. If you have to touch the wire be sure to unplug the unit first.
Try all the different modes for the unit.
The reason is that on most units the black not only supplies power to the elements but also to the control board, lights, fans etc. (120 volts devices in the unit).