Rewired my cigarette lighter

[Jameel]

Thought a fellow neophyte might benefit from my attempt here. If I've done something here that raises a flag, I'm ready to be corrected.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I went to plug a USB charger into my cigarette lighter. The black beauty ring fell forward and the socket fell out (I didn't know it threaded into the housing at that time), with barely a thread of copper hanging on at the front end of the receptacle. I pushed it back in (sort of out of instinct) and it sparked. That freaked me out, so I immediately wrapped it up with electrical tape and headed home. Today I sorted it out. I'm replacing my blower motor, so what better time to fix this?

Through all of this I had the negative lead disconnected from the battery.

First off, I picked up a replacement well for the Dr. Bulczynski mod, then proceeded to rewire the main receptacle. It looks like someone had tried a fix at some point. The end of the brass terminal was caked with solder.



So I carefully melted it out with my soldering iron, but there wasn't much left of it. I simply pulled it out of the receptacle (which is in fine shape) and considered my options.



I found this spade terminal in my tool box, and decided to remove the insulation and give it a try.



It fit perfectly. It was a really sweet, snug fit.



I decided it was tight enough that I didn't need to solder it in place. If it comes loose, I can access it from inside the car.

I trimmed up my inner sleeve (replacement well) ala Dr. B, and got ready to put it all back in the car.



I screwed the rewired receptacle into the housing from inside the car until snug, then I crimped a female spade terminal onto the hot lead from inside the trunk and connected the terminals. It's all very solid. I used the waterproof terminals because its what I had on hand. I didn't bother heat shrinking the insulation.

I reconnected the negative lead to the battery, turned the key to second position, slipped my Dr. B sleeve into position and plugged my radar detector into the socket. It lit right up and I called this job done.

[RSBob]

Well done sir. Maybe submit to Wayne's DIY thread above.

[DaveMcKenz]

Very nice. Great pictures.
Thanks,
Dave