Cigar lighter wiring and dash lights?

[mrollings53]

Truck is a '69 F250 Ranger Camper Special 390 C-6. Sorry for not mentioning it.

How does the original cigar lighter work? Namely, how does it ground and does it actually include a lamp inside of it, and then how does that ground? I ask because I recently replaced mine with a universal one and assumed that one wire was power and the other ground. Since then my dash lighting has gone out. Figuring that it didn't matter which was which I just hooked the two original wires up to the rough places they were on the OE lighter, on the new lighter. If however, that only a power wire is required and the original switch grounded through its contact with the dash, this will help explain why my lights went out. How much damage can I do to the wiring for the dash lights if its receiving the 15 amps from the cigar lighter when it is only meant to receive two? Should I also be expecting to replace a bunch of bulbs? Because, I also shorted the dash light fuse with a nut, because I couldn't figure out why it kept blowing.

More info: I went out the truck and rechecked the cigar lighter. I had the blue/ white stripe wire to the tang that sits off the side at an angle and a "black" wire hooked up to the center tang on the lighter. I say "black" because the wire had been spliced into about three times to add back lights to a gauge cluster the PO(S) installed on top of the AC box. It turns out that deep in the dash this black wire is spliced into the blue/red stripe wire that provides power to the dash lights. So will disconnecting this now "black" wire from the cigar lighter and wiring in a chassis ground in it's place restore function to both the cigar lighter and dash lights, or am I looking at some surgery because I shorted the whole thing out and may have fried something down the line?

[basketcase0302]

What year truck to start with...as I believe only the 70-72 used a printed circuit board for instrument panel lighting.

[Nitekruizer]

What year truck to start with...as I believe only the 70-72 used a printed circuit board for instrument panel lighting.

The '69 and earlier trucks instrument clusters were hardwired, for lack of a better term. They didn't have printed circuits. If you fried anything other than your fuse you MAY have fried the rheostat in the dimmer switch. The second terminal on your new lighter may be a ground but you need to find out if it is. If you connect your dash lights to that you will have a dead short. If the new cigar lighter doesn't have a bulb in it then don't connect your dash lights to it at all. Good luck.

[Nitekruizer]

I'll go a bit farther with this. First thing, if you still have that nut in the fuse box get it out of there now. Second, disconnect the blue/red stripe wire from your cigar lighter and tape up the end of the wire so it wont short on anything. Third, put the proper fuse in the fuse box and try your dash lights. If they still don't work check to see if the fuse blew again. If the fuse blew again then you still have a short somewhere. If the fuse is still good check the bulbs to make sure they are not burned out. If your bulbs are good, then as I said in my post above, you may have burned out the rheostat dimmer control in your light switch. If you have a 12volt test light you can track the pwer through the circuits. The blue/white stripe wire is the main power wire to the cigar lighter. You may or may not even need to ground the new lighter. It may be grounded just by mounting it in the dash. I hope this helps.

[basketcase0302]

Sorry but I didn't realize you'd came back and edited/added the year of your truck. 2nd what Nitecruizer said above...pull the nut out of the fuse box before the truck burns to the ground.
Here's your fuse panel it might also help, (cigar lighter on the bottom-left):