Morgan Technical and Other Topics Blog: Fixing a Loose Cigarette Lighter Socket

Fixing My Morgan's Loose Cigarette Lighter Socket

For as long as we have owned our Roadster 100 we have been plagued with problems relating to the Cigarette Lighter Socket, located inside of the Glove Pocket being loose in its fixing hole.

The complete Cigarette Lighter unit.

We use this socket regularly for our Sat Nav and for the Electric Tyre Pump.

Being a Live Socket, it has also been used regularly for plugging in our CTek Battery Conditioner.

The CTEK Battery Conditioner.

This Cigarette Lighter Socket came loose from its fixing early on in our ownership and it was refixed again during a service under warranty. It was not long before it came loose again and we have suffered this loose socket condition until now.

During a recent trip away the No. 18 fuse blew, that is the one covering the Cigarette Lighter Socket and the also The Side Lights, therefore it was time to buy a new Cigarette Lighter unit and replace the original one.

At the same time I would find out why it had come loose twice.

The easy way to replace it would be to remove the Dashboard to gain access, however, I did not want to risk that having never removed it before.

I decided to first investigate by removing the 5 screws holding up the under tray from below the Dashboard to gain access to the back of the unit and the power sockets.

Being the same unit as is used in the Land Rover Defender, obtaining a new one was easy.

The socket itself is constructed of two parts:

The Plastic Outer part containing a Lamp Bulb Holder.

The Inner Metal Part with the connectors for both the Lamp and the Power Positive and Negative Plugs.

In the two photos above, the old plastic unit above has the Bulb fixed into the unit with its own tab and earth built in.

On the New Metal Part below The Bulb Unit may be removed from its holder and is supplied with its own red cable with female socket and black earth cable which has to be attached to the Metal Unit.

The Attached Lamp Earth Cable

This was easily achieved by slackening the centre nut and slipping the black cable end under the Earth Tab on the unit and then re tightening it once again.

Studying the new unit I realised that it was the protruding Lamp Bulb Holder and the total length that was preventing the unit from falling out completely.

I also realised that to remove the whole unit I would first need to push out the metal centre section which would then allow the plastic part to turn and I would then be able to lift it out from its fixing hole in the Glove Box.

I removed the Two Sockets from the Lamp and from the Cigarette Lighter and pushed the centre section out by pulling it from the glove box end and pushing it out from behind.

The Large White Socket has 2 connections set at right angles to each other forming a 'T' .

The Vertical Leg of the 'T' is the live power to the Cigarette Lighter and;

The other Top Bar of the 'T' is the earth connection from the outer frame of the cigarette lighter.

This Cigarette Lighter circuit is live all of the time on the Morgan Roadster and is fused by the No. 18 Fuse which is also shared by the Side Lights. ( Located in the Large Fuse Box located under the Bonnet on the offside )

Being Live all of the time is the only way that a Battery Conditioner can be used plugged into the Cigarette Lighter.

With most other cars these circuits remain 'dead' until the ignition is switched on.

( On the Land River Defender both circuits become live when the ignition key is switched to the fully on position.)

The second Smaller White socket has just a single connector which feeds power to the small bullet light bulb which illuminates the Green Plastic surround.

This lamp circuit seems to be wired so that it only becomes live when the Side & Head Lights are turned on.

Note!
Care must be taken when removing it, to recognise how the Metal Unit is correctly located inside of the Outer Plastic Unit so that the new unit may be fitted back together correctly later.

Once the metal part was removed the Plastic Part came out easily.

The Old Plastic Part with its broken lug

I could now see clearly that the device holding in the unit were just two small lugs in the plastic and one had broken off.

I also realised when I trial fitted the new plastic part that the hole in the aluminium wall of the glove box was slightly over-sized and that in time, with pulling out the various sockets, the new one would soon come loose as well.

A more robust fixing method was needed.

My Solution - a 23mm Jubilee Clip

I had trail fitted the clip to the plastic to establish that there would be enough clearance between the base of the Lamp Holder and the Glove Box Inner Wall and it was a very neat fit but did not require any narrowing of the clip.

The Trial Fitted Jubilee Clip

The Clip has to be located with the Screw Part towards the front to allow access with a correct sized Hex Socket set onto a Screwdriver.

Tightening of the Screw Head had to be done by feel as there was no way to see behind the glove box while tightening and pushing the Plastic part from inside the Glove Box at the same time as lying on your side over the car door sill.

The Plastic Unit with the Jubilee Clip Fitted just visible.

A Blind Photo taken showing the Jubilee Clip in place before pushing home and tightening.

The Two Sockets are behaving and lying ready to be re attached.

It is essential not to fully tighten the Jubilee Clip fully until the Male Part has been reinserted and the Sockets re attached. Most of this work has to be done by feel.