Hello All!

I have an 87 F150 that has left me stumped.... When I got the truck I noticed the cigarette lighter wasn't working and upon inspection that there was no wiring attached to it. So I reattached what I believe to be the correct power cable. It is the yellow-striped (maybe green? -- I am color blind) wire that read 12V when I put my multimeter to it. It is also a wire that is always hot and not acitaved when the key is turned. I got a connected the wire to the cigarette lighter and got nothing. I thought maybe it was the actual lighter itself because it looked corroded in there. So I got a brand new cigarette lighter, installed it, and still nothing.

When I have the lighter connected and stick one probe of my multimeter inside to the contacts I get 12V. Even when I have a charger plugged into the socket and then put my multimeter to USB port on the charger I get 12V. Yet, when I plug my phone in to charge I get nothing. I tried the same charger in a different car and it works fine, so it's not the charger. I've also tried a different charger and get the same results.

When I tried running a ground wire from the spade connector on the outside of the lighter body it shorted out.

Any thoughts here? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

You must have a ground wire connected in order for the lighter to work. Either the lighter you bought is bad, or you have it put together wrong.