Constant power circuit for cigar lighter?

My 96's cigar lighter works only with the key on, and I need to change it to a constant power source with the key off. What's the easiest way to do this, and still retain a fuse in the circuit?

The reason for the change is to be able to plug in a solar panel battery charger (for trickle charging).

Thanks,
ROE

Might be easier to just add a second lighter socket

Or just hardwire in some sort of auxiliary "positive retention" plug (a Delphi Weatherpack comes readily to mind...) that you can tuck out of the way when you don't need it.

I honestly like having the lighter dead with the key off - I'm a bit paranoid about things like that. The ones I've added are also dead with the key off - if I need something there, I can turn the key.

I'd suggest getting, say, one female and TWO male Delphi two-poles, and use "plugs" instead of wires and boots in one of the males, so you can use it to close off the connection when it's not being used...

5-90

I agree with you, 5-90. My cigarette lighter caught on fire in my XJ while driving down the freeway. A scary experience indeed. For this reason, I don't think its the best way to connect electrical accesories. Its use as an electrical socket is more or less improvised in my opinion. Crap, that incident was almost 5 years ago to the day! Isin't it amazing how fast time goes by. I eventually removed the defunct cigarette lighter and used its place for other things. Anyway there is 12 volt constant hot power on one of the fusebox sockets(the fusebox beside the brake pedal) or you can run a wire from the fusebox beside the battery. There is a convenient post there where the + wire from the battery connects and you can add an inline fuse. I could probably post a picture with further explanation if you would like.

Thanks guys, those are all good ideas. I think I'll search for a hot terminal on the fuse box, and run a wire from it to the lighter socket.

My cigarette lighter caught on fire in my XJ while driving down the freeway. A scary experience indeed.

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Indeed. This circuit will definitely get a fuse. All it will be used for is the solar charger and possibly a cellphone charger, both pulling just a few milliamps.
:greensmok :nono:

Runnin'OnEmpty said:

Thanks guys, those are all good ideas. I think I'll search for a hot terminal on the fuse box, and run a wire from it to the lighter socket.

Indeed. This circuit will definitely get a fuse. All it will be used for is the solar charger and possibly a cellphone charger, both pulling just a few milliamps.
:greensmok :nono:

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Whoa there, you're talking two different things. I take it this solar charger is one that goes on the dash or something ? So you have to run wires. Easiest method is go get an accessory wire kit, it will have an inline fuse, two wires, red and black, run the wires to the battery then back thru the firewall to a plug on the bottom of the dash somewhere. Now if you are going to use it to charge the battery with the solar cell you just plug the solar cell into the plug, when using it for the cell phone just plug that in instead of the solar cell. All the parts store sell accys cig plugs, both loose and in a small box with 2 or more plugs. Trick is you want the fuse as close to the battery as you can get it, I imagine the solar cell has it's own fuse but I may be wrong that all of them have it, just the one I looked at a couple of years ago...

Hi Rich. The solar charger and cellphone charger both have a cigarette lighter male plug, so they'll plug into the vehicle cigarette lighter. I won't be using them both at the same time, so I just need a constant power connection on the vehicle cigar lighter.

The solar charger puts out 13-14v at a very small amperage, so it charges through the cigarette lighter connection to the battery. It's for keeping the battery topped up when the vehicle's not driven every day.