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So I found out the reason my cigarette lighter doesn’t work is because the last owner took the positive wire off of it to use for the new radio the installed. My question is what are my options to fix it? Can I splice the positive wire and add another wire and have them go to both the radio and lighter, do I need to set another fuse and completely wire another positive connection that’s separate from the original, or really what’s the easiest route to take?
No offence intended but hooking the aftermarket stereo to the lighter circuit is total amateur and that orange wire is hot all the time. Find the original radio circuit which should be a 3 wire harness consisting of a Yellow, a Gray and a Black wire.
Black is radio ground. Gray is dial light, tied into the dash light bulb circuit. Yellow is radio power. This is the wire you want to use for power to the new stereo. Reconnect the hot at all times Orange wire back to the lighter. If the stereo needs a hot all the time circuit for it's memory, run a wire to an appropriate connector at the fuse block.
Easy, correct and circuit protected.
Cheers, Greg
you are that car's caretaker, not it's owner. you wanna smoke in a car, get an accord. so you don't really need a dedicated hot wire to that short circuit that lights cigarettes. it is a cell phone charger now. never uses a whole amp. it can share duty with a radio or radio memory.
So to clear some things up, 1. I didn’t do it so no offense taken, and 2. I’m not smoking in my corvette. Just trying to be able to charge my phone.
This is what the setup looks like. If I plug the orange back to the cigarette lighter then should I route the yellow to the battery since it says battery? And anyone know what gauge if yes? Or should I do something different? I’m pretty inexperienced with electrical stuff so please dumb it down for me haha.
No problem.
Yes, put the orange wire back on the cig. lighter. You haven't mentioned what year your car is but, get a test light and find a fuse in your panel that is hot with key off. There should be an unused spade connector (plug) adjacent to that fuse. Again, check it with a test light to be sure. Then take that yellow wire marked "battery" add a piece of 14 gauge wire if you need to extend it and plug it into that fuse panel spot. Quick and easy fix. I'm sure this is just for the stereo's memory.
Cheers, Greg
No problem.
Yes, put the orange wire back on the cig. lighter. You haven't mentioned what year your car is but, get a test light and find a fuse in your panel that is hot with key off. There should be an unused spade connector (plug) adjacent to that fuse. Again, check it with a test light to be sure. Then take that yellow wire marked "battery" add a piece of 14 gauge wire if you need to extend it and plug it into that fuse panel spot. Quick and easy fix. I'm sure this is just for the stereo's memory.
Cheers, Greg
On a 78 there are 2 Hot At All Times cells in the fuse panel, (if not already taken)...
The top one marked ACCY is protected by the 30 AMP Breaker.
Just below that there is one marked BAT and is protected by the 20 AMP CLK/LTR/CTSY fuse.
I would still protect that yellow Battery Wire with a inline fuse with something closer to what your radio provides now.
So had a look tonight and both spots are already taken. I’m not entirely sure by what as it’s hard to trace the wires, but any ideas on what to do now?
If you know you have these options...
ACCY
Rear Window Defogger Time Delay Relay
Power Window Relay Rear Window Defogger Timer Relay
BAT
Power Antenna Relay
Interior Light Delay Timer early build
Because these were options, additional harnesses were used.
I would check both the BAT cell and ACCY cell harness extensions for additional unused sockets you can tap into.
They are generally within 5" - 6" from the fuse panel.
Last edited by bmotojoe; May 9, 2022 at 09:29 AM.
Reason: Strikethrough Double Entry...
So to clear some things up, 1. I didn’t do it so no offense taken, and 2. I’m not smoking in my corvette. Just trying to be able to charge my phone.
This is what the setup looks like. If I plug the orange back to the cigarette lighter then should I route the yellow to the battery since it says battery? And anyone know what gauge if yes? Or should I do something different? I’m pretty inexperienced with electrical stuff so please dumb it down for me haha.
Electronics LIKE the battery-nice clean -stable power. The yellow wire for the aftermarket radio not only powers memory - clock- but EVERYTHING.
Running the power wire also helps in clearing up noise (alternator whine) in the radio from a "dirty" power source
The red ( usually) wire from the aftermarket radio is used JUST to trigger the radio on. It draws NO power from this source.
When you run the wire to the battery- FUSE at the battery. The fuse size is determined on what size wire you are running. The fuse's
job is to blow BEFORE the wire melts.
you can tell by the plugs in the pic of fuse box above that they are the correct plugs in the correct holes. i think the orange lighter wire is one of the 2 in the 2nd to top plug. i also think it will easily handle a car stereo power wire added to it's load side as long as you don't have enough amplifiers in back to shake house windows with the bass note as you drive down the street. my kid's stereo wires are bigger than the battery cables going to the starter.
Last edited by derekderek; May 9, 2022 at 10:41 AM.
If you follow this link to lectric limited and magnify the harness shown you will see a Black/Blue connector.
This is an example of what I was talking about as unused sockets that may be available for your Hot Always Orange wires only.
The double pink/blk wires in IGN cell are switched circuits.
LINK:https://www.lectriclimited.com/court...-harness-94521
Richard is correct, you really should run a new fused wire at the battery to the new radio.
I would suspect that that Yellow wire is 16 gauge or maybe a 18 gauge but running a 14 gauge would be my choice to power the radio only.
If in the future you may want to install a power amp then you would follow the new amp wiring size recommendations.
you can tell by the plus in the pic of fuse box above that they are the correct plugs in the correct holes. i think the orange lighter wire is one of the 2 in the 2nd to top plug. i also think it will easily handle a car stereo power wire added to it's load side as long as you don't have enough amplifiers in back to shake house windows with the bass note as you drive down the street. my kid's stereo wires are bigger than the battery cables going to the starter.
The orange wire at the lighter was part of the main dash harness, the plugs in the ACCY and BAT cells were options and required there own separate harnesses.
New Cigarette Lighter Wire
