New Power Outlets

My cigarette lighter was broken, and the power outlet’s green plastic was cracked. I found an excellent replacement on ebay for $5.29 shipped: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360678268535

I knew that even if it didn’t fit, for that price I would make it fit. But yes, it fits perfectly. It’s a little more modern looking, and it’s blue! I measured the lighter drawing under 7.5 amps, and the lamp under 0.8 amps. I don’t know what the stock lighter draws since mine is broke. The only drawbacks I found were the light requires a separate ground, and it’s a little dim. I didn’t check, but I think the bulb is incandescent. I cut my wiring harness and added another female disconnect connector for the lamp’s ground.

The power outlet I bought through ebay comes in other colors, even green.

I also wanted to add some power outlets behind the dash for electronics:

Fuse 17 is rated at 20 amps. My cell phone and dash cam combined draw less that 1 amp, and my ’83 also doesn’t have a clock on Fuse 17. Adding two more outlets wasn’t a problem. Since Fuse 17 is live all the time, I decided on another mod:

After some fast shipping with DMC-MW, I cut the wiring harness and put a switch in the middle of the circuit. So now all my power outlets are controlled by the switch. This allows me to stop and start my dash cam whenever I want without touching the cam or the power connector.

My A Pillar trim is off the car right now, so I’ll be running the power for the dash cam behind the trim, then above the headliner.

Costs: