Hey VonD...i have a couple Q's. first . Has it been determined what caused the sparks in the first place? These parts you received.....are they a direct replacement for what's buggered? Is your light 120v. or 240v? Normally with the wires and colours you described red ,black and white belong to a 240v. circuit....red ,one hot lead, black ,another hot lead and then the white or neutral. There would also ,or should be a green (ground ) conductor(wire). If your light is 120 v. and plugs into a normal 110v. rec. take a look at the inside of the light and see if that white wire is attached to the case or another ground terminal somewhere inside the light.If it does that's your ground. It will for sure have one.....otherwise if there was ever a fault inside the light for some reason and it wasn't grounded to the case ....if you touched it you would ,or could be zapped real good and if your feet are damp or your standing on a damp or a wet floor ,your history!I'm almost positive it doesn't matter what terminal the red and black go to once you have the white one correctly connected. Wish i knew more about Mars lights and how they do their internal wiring.Hope i've helped somewhat VonD. I also find it a little odd that a manufacturer would trust you to make these repairs yourself. Sounds to me that one of those (red or black)wires came loose and touched or shorted out against something metal inside the case . Take a good look inside to make sure the rest of the internals are undamaged.Let me know will ya. Be absolutely sure before you power it back up OK! Manufacturers will sometimes use white as a ground conductor but not usually....green is the universal colour used for ground conductors.That's why i said to have a good look inside to see where that white one goes.Later bud! Cheers.
