tapping into, the cigarette lighter

[Johnybeas]

I was trying to tap into the back of the cigarette lighter for power to power my neons, as it seems like the most logical place to tap since they usually plug in there and I want to hard wire them.

I tried doing so, and using the ground that is in where the shifter is as the ground. I tapped into the wire in the back from one of the plugs, I used a pigback connector to connect to the wire I thought was the right one for the power and then soldered all my neons into the one wire I connected to it, I am not getting them to light up though, so I'm wondering is this because of a poor soldering job( I'm still trying to master the art) or am I hooking to the wrong power line for this. Anyone tried doing this before for a switch or anything else? which wire is it??? I looked on my wiring diagrams and it looks like it's supposed to be a white wire??? I could only see a green one with a red tracer that looked to be in the right place, is there a diff wiring color per years? or can my fingers just not slide back there and get the right wire? anyone have any ideas??

[YourConfused]

A simple test light will give you the answers you seek. You can get one for about 10 bucks almost anywhere.

[nextse7en]

No a great place to pull yer current from, anyway, may I respectfully suggest a dedicated circuit?

-Patrick

[XT6Wagon]

Should be fine, but I'd advise removing the lighter to prevent it being used while other sources are on the same wiring. As a double protection use a fuse at the new connection and decent sized wiring.

However yes the real answer is to wire to the main battery cable with a new dedicated line and fuseblock unless your car has completely unused circuts avalible in the OEM fuseblock under the hood. Wrap any sharp edges the wires could rub on with edging material of somekind AND wrap the wires into a loom as much as possible.

Screwing up your wiring *CAN* burn your car to the ground.

Which makes a $.89 roll of electrical tape, and other proper precautions downright cheap.

[Johnybeas]

after doing all my connections I surrounded all open metal with electrical tape... I'm not that much of a newb... come on guys I did my own wiring for the nss bypass for the 5spd. I see what you guys are saying about a dedicated line... would be a good idea. I have a test light just was too damn lazy to use it as I was trying to wire these right before I left and my engine died so, I was more worried about that than the neons.... but now that the new engine is in and I'm going home in a week or so I figured I'd try and get them working. Maybe I will just try and find a good spot to run the cables through and get a good connection to the battery, but how do I connect a cable directly to the battery???