Forum;

I am posting this here so that 122 owners can learn and benefit from Michael Basel's recent electrical fire/horror experience (see posting on 544 Forum: Cigaret lighter )

If you are going to use your cigarette lighter as an on-board 12V power source, and with GPS, phone, computer, audio, there are plenty of power hungry things out there which need to come along for the ride, I recommend adding an in-line fuse.

Original equipment Lighters are not fused, and directly connected to battery power...this means that if anything fails and shorts in the ancient fixture, a LOT of energy is available...plenty to meltdown the harness, as poor Michael found out...if you are going to use the ancient device, I highly recommend limiting the amount of energy available with an inexpensive in-line fuse...3A should do it for most electronic loads, but check the device ratings to be certain. The original wire gauge is around 18-16...which is OK for anything up to 8 or so Amps intermittent duty.

Cheers from Connecticut!

Good tip Ron. An alternative is a fused plugin such as this one on eBay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-12V-Male-Car-Cigarette-Lighter-Socket-Plug-Connector-with-Fuse-Red-LED-DIY-/141082871889?pt=US_Adapters&hash=item20d931c851.

Better than nothing, but at $1.79 with free shipping, clearly not Volvo quality. And doesn't protect against a short in the lighter receptacle itself. For those who don't like crawling under the dash.

Cheers,
--
Barry '67 122S "Betty" (Rest in parts), '69 122S "Veronica"