I don't want to sound stupid here, but my cell phone came with a cigarette lighter charger, and an adapter to plug into the 12V power receptacle in my truck. I didn't think there was a difference - the cigarette lihter makes power across 12v - no difference.

There shouldn't be a physical difference between the two? Why did I get two different adapters?

Cannon

 

The charger works just fine in my car. I had not thought of someone switching the leads. Would the cigarette lighter still work if the leads were switched.

 

would the cigarette lighter still work if the leads were switched?

 

Use mine for the GPS and cellphone all the time, no problems.

 

Toasted oat, Disconnect your battery and if you look inside the socket there is tabs that you can bend in just a little and it will help your problem. The othe roption is to buy another lighter and install it.

 

Mine works, I never had a problem. Hope you get it figured out.

 

The lighter does not care about polarity! The adapter might! If you have a test light check out the lighter socket. The + terminal should be the center contact and the - should be the shell.
Just check from the shell to any point on the frame you shouldn't have any voltage there if you do the leads on the lighter are reversed.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar_lighter_receptacle

Here is more info than you would ever want to know about auto cigarette lighters. There are two types of sockets A and B. I belive the Harley cigarette lighter socket is a type A socket and the power outlet found on most modern cars is the type B. Most new cars don't have a lighter they have a power outlet socket. As was stated in an above post some car phone chargers come with a little plastic adapter piece that makes them compatible with both type of sockets. I recomend you try a different charger for your phone, try one of the cheap ones you can buy for under $10.00, if that is what you are using then try the one that comes with your phone. If all else fails Harley and other auto parts outlets sell a power outlet style socket with a cap on it you can replace the cigarette lighter socket with.

 

just to let all know that I just got done switching the wires on the cigarette lighter and now everything works fine.

 

I came up with a solution that you guys might be interested in. Check out this thread. https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...ml#post4776527 I made this for my Ultra.