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Cigarette Lighter Wiring

19K views 19 replies 15 participants last post by  Dripdr 
#1 ·
I had a fellow forum member come over today and help me wire up the main harness on car (Thanks Malarson). Only thing we cant seem to get working is the aftermarket cigarette housing and lighter. Only wire I see going to it is the Blue/White 90 degree Plug.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
 
#2 ·
It only takes 1 wire, which should be hot. Check the cigarette lighter fuse.

If you have a test light or a multimeter, check that blue/white wire for 12v. It should be constant 12v (meaning it's there with the key off). The lighter's housing is meant to ground through the housing into dash, make sure it has a clean connection there.

There's a possibility that your aftermarket cig lighter has an isolated housing and uses a ground spade on the back that you'll need to ground. Depends on the lighter.

You need a 12v wire and a ground some way or another. That's all there is to it.

-Matt
 
#3 ·
Yup one wire goes to the center with a 90 degree plug. That single blu/whi wire goes to the 20 amp fuse along with the emergency flasher....always powered. Negative is the dash/chassis.


Slim
 
#4 ·
Freshly Painted dash, it was only accessory that was not in it so the whole hole area got painted. U think its that simple? I bet it is!
 
#5 ·
There might also be a spade tab built in to the housing so that that you can connect a ground directly to the housing instead of grounding the housing to the dash. The spade terminal should be right next to the center terminal at the rear of the housing.
 
#6 ·
Just quit smoking. LOL
Stan
 
#8 ·
I do have the lead off the back of the housing I will try to ground it tomorrow and see what that leads me to
 
#9 ·
I'd grab a test light and probe the 90* plug. If you have juice then you either have a bad ground or bad lighter element. (You can probe the inside of the lighter socket too).

If no power, probe both sides of the 20A fuse to see if you have a bad fuse. If power there you have a break in the wire from the fuse box to the lighter. If no power you have a break in the wire from the fuse box back to the headlamp switch.
 
#11 ·
I'm replying to this old thread because, well, these are old cars. I've been doing a lot of electrical/wiring work lately: installed Vintage Air and Speedhut gauges. I also got a Black Widow FM transmitter so I can bluetooth music from my phone through the stereo. The transmitter plugs into the lighter. It worked well for about a week and then died. Test of the lighter revealed no power. The fuse was ok so I pulled the dash. I found that when installing the gauges I had removed the ground wire from the lighter so I figured that was it. I attached a ground but still no power so I consulted the forum and came upon this thread. I went back to the fuse block. There was power on the inlet side but not on the output side (I'm not sure of the proper terminology). I removed the fuse again and noticed quite a bit of rust on the fuse holder contacts. I broke out my Harbor Freight dremel clone and burnished the contacts to a bright shine. Put it all back together and now everything works fine.
 
#10 ·
Eric, Yep, we had 12 volts at the wire....it's that spade connection on there that we couldn't figure out what hooked to it, it's the ground....
 
#12 ·
Thank you all. So grateful to be able to come in from out in the garage all morning troubleshooting little stuff like this and find new ideas and solutions. Still not getting the car started, but changed strategy to putting on all the "other" stuff I got for my birthday. The cigar lighter and housing is one. Wiper bag, hoses, nozzles, etc. the second. Back out to make the cigar lighter work. Then back in to search on the wiper washer pump issue. "See yous soon"

Thanks again to all you seasoned Mustang gearheads making our lives better!
Bob in Fallston, MD
2015 GT Vert
66 Rustang (for now), but getting nicer each day...
 
#19 ·
Doesn’t sound like my issue applied here but given the topic I thought I would toss out my OEM cigarette lighter learning experience.
Similar issues, had everything wired up via a painless harness. Utilized a similar 90 degree connection on the back of my OEM lighter housing. Ironically I had noticed the lighter did not work when I first took possession of the car and now it still doesn’t work following my full rewire/rebuild etc..?? Double checked the circuit, fuse, power at the 90 degree connection but no power on the center pin within the lighter housing? Ground was good.
So you gents that have been around Mustangs way more than me not to mentioned a manual may mention it but I discovered the small round item pictured below, screwed onto the back of the lighter housing. Long story short this must be some sort of fuse, CB / thermal type or something but whatever it is, no power was going through it. The good was it just unscrewed and I slipped the 90 degree connector on the remaining housing threaded stud. All good!

So if you aren’t getting “+” power within the housing check to see if you have a bad one of the below.. 👍

Grey Wood Automotive lighting Asphalt Body jewelry
 
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