Cigar Lighter connection

Mark_88 · May 2, 2009

For some reason I cannot find the wires to connect my cigar lighter...I want to use it to charge my cell phone and maybe boost the battery with one of those portable chargers...

What I need information on is the gauge of wire used and essentially how to ground it...I was going to just run a wire from the lighter to the fuse panel and then ground it to the dash...

TIA

shadetree · May 3, 2009

Any circuit that is hot all the time will work. Use your test light to locate. 18ga will work. Bigger size doesn't hurt anything. Whatever you have handy. You will not be drawing that much current. And yes, the lighter housing is the ground and it grounds to the dash. I would fuse the circuit with at least a 3 amp fuse for circuit protection.

shady

Mark_88 · May 3, 2009

Thanks Shady...

The cigar lighter is wired, typically, in with the horn and it looked like 18ga but I couldn't tell from being upside down and couldn't test it with the wire stripper/cutter (that have the gauge marked on them)...but I think I can find some of that...and the fuse is rated at 18 or 20 amps IIRC...

But do I actually need to run a second wire to the dash for ground or is the unit grounded just by the housing? I see two places to connect wires on the lighter that I have...one is a nut/bolt and the other is just a clip...

RobbieD · May 3, 2009

If you're hard-mounting it to the metal dash structure it'll self-ground. But if you're mounting it in just the plastic trim strip then you can use a ground wire on the clip (as in a spade terminal on the housing?).

Mark_88 · May 3, 2009

RobbieD said:
If you're hard-mounting it to the metal dash structure it'll self-ground. But if you're mounting it in just the plastic trim strip then you can use a ground wire on the clip (as in a spade terminal on the housing?).

Yeah, I guess it's called a spade terminal since it looks sorta like a spade with a hole in the middle...but thanks for confirming the ground as there is metal on metal with the housing...if I could just find that silly wire...I know I was thinking of leaving it off in case I decided to quit smoking, but my cell phone can be charged from it...I'm sure I can also wire in a charger for it but this is easier...

RobbieD · May 3, 2009

Sounds like you've got it under control. Quit smoking? Ahhhh; something will end up killing us all anyway, so why quit?

Mark_88 · May 3, 2009

Yeah, I'm sure there are other things that are building up in everyone that will eventually contribute to the final bow...

But it's more the cost of smoking right now...they got the price jacked up so high and with the economy going into the dumpster there is little left over for luxuries at this point...

Hmmmm...maybe this is the anti-smokers ploy...get the price high, get everyone unemployed...end of smoking...makes my conspiracy theory mind work overtime...

RobbieD · May 3, 2009

Sh!t, man, the way they tax cigarettes down here, if everyone quit smoking the state of Georgia would go broke!

Mark_88 · May 3, 2009

That's probably true for Canada too...and since most smokers are in Ontario and Quebec they need us more than we need them...

Mark_88 · May 4, 2009

OK...got it done...haven't tried charging the cell phone, but the lighter worked...

I used three short wires from a harness that I had for my Zuki blower motor and one happened to have a fuse link on it...

:icon_thumby:

baxtej44 · May 4, 2009

Mark_88 said:
OK...got it done...haven't tried charging the cell phone, but the lighter worked...

I used three short wires from a harness that I had for my Zuki blower motor and one happened to have a fuse link on it...

any chance you documented this? I have one, and would love to have a 12v charger for cell phone, ipod, etc.

I'm not very tech savvy, as you may have seen before, and wanted to know what else i could turn this into, as I don't smoke, and how hard it is to replace it

Mark_88 · May 5, 2009

I didn't really have time to do any documentation for this, but it was really simple. When you pull the cigar lighter out of the dash (two screws) it should have just one wire attached to it...if you want to run something else from that wire (disconnect NEG battery terminal first just in case) you can as long as it is DC and can be grounded to the dash somehow (there are many screws you can use to ground items on the dash). Just connect the power line to the one from the cigar lighter and then ground it and you should be good to go...

Cigar Lighter connection

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