Trying to install a cigarette lighter kit. Please help.

[pappyfromjersey]

First, I don't have a digital camera (or any way to take pictures for all of you to see). Sorry.

I own a '72 Chevy C10 lwb truck. I bought a cigarette lighter kit from Chevy Duty and made a bad attempt to install it. I got as far as installing the lighter socket and bezel in the dash and fishing the wires through to the fuse box.

This is where things got rough. I'm a plumber by trade, and have next to no knowledge of things electrical (automotive or otherwise). What I CAN tell you is that the factory-installed terminations on the supplied wires were "bullet-shaped" and all of the connections on my fuse panel are a male spade-type.

But that's not really the problem. The spot on my fuse panel marked "cig" is empty. What I mean is that there's no spade-type connection there. There's just a squarish hole.

Is there another spot that I can connect the heating element/light leads to? Is there something I can shove into that hole that will make the connection?

I've purchased some termination fittings from Pep Boys that looked like they would fit into that hole, but had no success.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry my first post was a cry for help and contained no good pictures of my ride or my problem.

[farside847]

I spliced mine into the radio lead. It is hot only when the key is "on" or "acc"

[70c10]

Welcome from Maryland!. Cig should have a male spade and the blue wire for the light goes to the termianl marked PNL Lights or spmething like that. DISCONNECT your battery when making the connections. It sucks you have to modify your New lighter to match the terminals in the fuse block. No big deal though.

[alf1096]

Cut the wires off and leave the lighter in there for looks!!!!!!

That way you will live to do another project!!!!


Just Kidding also welcome from Texas

[matthufham]

Originally Posted by alf1096

Cut the wires off and leave the lighter in there for looks!!!!!!

my previous owner did that, pisses me off. a 2 1/16" gauge will fit real nice in there though.

[llegos]

my truck has 2 lighters in it, both work(to my knowlege) but will never be used

[al's71gmc]

You should be able to buy an adapter from any parts store. I don't know what they're called, but it looks like a cradle with a female spade end. You just remove the fuse, insert it and replace the fuse. Splice the light and power wires together onto a spade end and plug it in. I'd put it in the radio, But if you want the light lit only when you're running headlights, you could use 2 of them, 1 in the radio and 1 in the panel light socket.
Al
BTW- Welcome and that's a nice looking truck.

[sneakysnake]

If you dont have the "cig" terminal you can use the radio, or put an inline fuse and use the "ing unfused". most lighters have a spadefor ground and a pin for the hot, you can use a female round connector for hot wire.

[pappyfromjersey]

Wow. I didn't expect such a wealth of info about such a small (but severely annoying) problem. Thanks a lot. Especially sneakysnake for the awesome pic of my frustrating fuse panel. I'll probably use the radio connection with a splice.

Thanks again.

[LONGHAIR]

Do yourself (and your truck) a favor when you make the connection..........connect it to the fused side of the wiring. Meaning that if the radio's fuse would blow that the connection is broken.
I have seen melt-downs from the connection being made "up-stream" of the fuse.

[KEH]

I ran a dedicated 10 gauge wire from the battery to the lighter. Mainly because I want a good connection for accessories; especially for an inverter to run 110 appliances.