Cigarette lighter : Bad Ground?I can’t draw any power from

[crowmeyocks]

i run an inverter off my 7.3 cigar lighter socket and it’s been malfunctioning so I took it apart, changed the fuse, checked everything. From what I can tell I’m getting power to the back of the socket but I don’t get a reading if I connect to negative of my voltmeter to the wall of the socket. On a known ground it reads battery level, but I can’t draw any power from it. Is this a bad ground? I’ve tested the fuse terminals of my inverter with it plugged in and they read as getting power, but no matter what I plug in or scrape off or fiddle with or probe I can’t find the darn ground within the socket!

So how does the darn thing ground and what’s my next move outside just cleaning all my connections?

 

[IDIBRONCO]

It's possible that you need a new socket for your lighter. LMC Truck lists them for $5.95.

 

[crowmeyocks]

*caugh* oh... I um... got it... ha. If anyone else is as dumb as me there’s a tab on the back of the socket and it connects to a wire and terminal that apparently sometimes falls back behind the cluster... just, uh, so you know.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

There's that too. Glad you got it fixed.