OT - Fixed problem on my '87 F150

[sargentrs]

Had some electrical issues with my DD '87 F150 that I thought I'd share with you guys. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most frustrating to figure out. A couple of months ago, my USB phone charger that I plug into the cigar lighter quit working. Told myself I'd get around to it later. A few weeks later I discovered that my cruise control didn't work and a week later discovered my horn no longer worked. Monday my turn signals quit working. Crap!...I hate electrical issues. While I could live without the rest of the options I had to fix my turn signals right away. Found the fuse panel under the dash and the cover had the legend on it. Sure enough, turn signal fuse was blown. That's when I noticed that the legend pointed out that the horn, cruise control and cigar lighter were all on the same fuse. I discovered that one was blown too. Cool! I could fix it all at once. Got new fuses and plugged the turn signal one in first. Turn signals worked again. Plugged the other one in and it sparked and blew right away. Started looking under the hood for relays and such but couldn't find any so I googled it and found a similar post on the web. The guy mentioned that sometimes the cigar lighter would short out and to unplug it first. So I went to unplug the wire to the cigar lighter but couldn't get to it. Deciding to take it out, I pulled out my USB charger from the socket. Wait a minute!? The end of the charger's missing? Looked down in the cigar lighter socket and saw 3 little metal pieces in the bottom, a chrome nut, a plunger cap and a small fuse. The fuse was laying in contact with the center of the socket and the outer housing, effectively grounding out the hot pole of the lighter. Fished the pieces out, plugged in a new fuse and now everything's good. I'd had visions of pulling the steering wheel pad, steering wheel, turn signal switch, etc, only to find out that my $1 USB charger had come apart in my cigarette lighter and caused all of my problems.

[1972hiboy]

Ill take those kind of elec problems any day........ glad you found it before getting it all apart.

[Thipdar]

Had some electrical issues with my DD '87 F150 that I thought I'd share with you guys. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most frustrating to figure out. A couple of months ago, my USB phone charger that I plug into the cigar lighter quit working. Told myself I'd get around to it later. A few weeks later I discovered that my cruise control didn't work and a week later discovered my horn no longer worked. Monday my turn signals quit working. Crap!...I hate electrical issues. While I could live without the rest of the options I had to fix my turn signals right away. Found the fuse panel under the dash and the cover had the legend on it. Sure enough, turn signal fuse was blown. That's when I noticed that the legend pointed out that the horn, cruise control and cigar lighter were all on the same fuse. I discovered that one was blown too. Cool! I could fix it all at once. Got new fuses and plugged the turn signal one in first. Turn signals worked again. Plugged the other one in and it sparked and blew right away. Started looking under the hood for relays and such but couldn't find any so I googled it and found a similar post on the web. The guy mentioned that sometimes the cigar lighter would short out and to unplug it first. So I went to unplug the wire to the cigar lighter but couldn't get to it. Deciding to take it out, I pulled out my USB charger from the socket. Wait a minute!? The end of the charger's missing? Looked down in the cigar lighter socket and saw 3 little metal pieces in the bottom, a chrome nut, a plunger cap and a small fuse. The fuse was laying in contact with the center of the socket and the outer housing, effectively grounding out the hot pole of the lighter. Fished the pieces out, plugged in a new fuse and now everything's good. I'd had visions of pulling the steering wheel pad, steering wheel, turn signal switch, etc, only to find out that my $1 USB charger had come apart in my cigarette lighter and caused all of my problems.

I had a similar problem in my Escort, once upon a time.
I was driving on I-5 in the California hinterlands, listening to a Grateful Dead DVD, which was in the laptop... which was being powered by the cigarette lighter adapter... I had a cassette adapter plugged into the laptop in place of headphones, and that adapter was in the car's stereo... so the music was coming out through the car's speakers.
Lo and behold, the cigarette lighter adapter jumped out of the socket!
I pulled over to try and restore my music, but I couldn't get it to work and had to wait until I got it home to deal with it.
The cigarette lighter adapter had to be re-assembled... and things got a lot better once I realized the part I couldn't find was still resting in the cigarette lighter socket.
It still didn't work... until I finally changed out the fuse.

[Jacksdad]

Interesting timing - almost had the exact same thing happen yesterday. A few years ago, a cheap USB adapter came apart and blew a fuse as you described, so I got wise to the problem and always make sure I don't turn them in case the assembly unscrews and shorts something out. Getting in the car yesterday morning, I looked across just in time to see my wife twisting the charger into the cigarette lighter. I had her take it out, and sure enough, the damned thing was just getting ready to fall apart.

[sargentrs]

...always make sure I don't turn them in case the assembly unscrews and shorts something out.

I realize now that's exactly what I've been doing. Mine had a light on top and I'm used to looking down to make sure it's on. If I don't see it I turn it around where I can.

[Thipdar]

Interesting timing - almost had the exact same thing happen yesterday. A few years ago, a cheap USB adapter came apart and blew a fuse as you described, so I got wise to the problem and always make sure I don't turn them in case the assembly unscrews and shorts something out. Getting in the car yesterday morning, I looked across just in time to see my wife twisting the charger into the cigarette lighter. I had her take it out, and sure enough, the damned thing was just getting ready to fall apart.

Sounds like a small drop (or even a 1/10 of a drop) of super glue is called for... just enough to hold it together, but not enough to keep you from getting it open again if you really want to open it up for some reason.