Problems with Hobart 185 welder

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I was welding today on some sheet metal and all was fine. Then my welds kept getting worse and worse. It acted like I was welding dirty metal so I was grinding and cleaning the metal but it made no difference.  I messed with the speed and feed and still nothing. Then I noticed my wire was contaminated. I thought at first it was rust so I opened the door to check it. It looked fine before feeding into the case. I started the welder with the door open and found the wire is getting hot all the way back to the spool. It got so hot that it melted through the guide (circled in picture). The contamination was burnt plastic from the guide. I turned the guide, fed all the bad wire out and tryed welding again. It worked fine for a couple minutes. When I opened the door again the wire had melted through the guide again. I know it is wired correct, I have been using it for a year now. Any ideas what is going on?
Reply:Check the tag end (tail end) of that spool and make sure it isn't touching the case. Make sure that that liner is very close to the drive wheel but NOT touching.