Morris Minor Owners Club

I've just been reading the posts on here about cigarette lighters. I was wondering if it's OK to just connect the positive to the positive battery terminal with an inline fuse and then earth it as normal?

My reason for doing it this way is I don't really want to mess around with my fusebox much or put extra things into my loom.

Would that be OK?

yes thats exactly what i've done and it works a treat, good luck

It's not at all a smart move to take anything directly from the battery. Take the feed from the fusebox - alongside a lilac wire if you want power all the time.

Ow I don't know what to do now haha. What are the dissadvantages of going direct from the battery?

I read that I can see which spade in the fusebox comes live with the ignition on but I read somewhere that somebody blew some electrics doing that.

With Ignition ON is a green wire........do the job properly.

bmcecosse wrote:With Ignition ON is a green wire........do the job properly.

I think I will So I look for the fuse with the green wire, and connect it to the spade at the other end of it?

Properly is an etherial concept

Agreed, much better to do it form the fuse box, then choose whether you want it on ign only, or not?

Plug on alongside the green wires (Ign only) or the lilac wires for constant feed.

bmcecosse wrote:Plug on alongside the green wires (Ign only) or the lilac wires for constant feed.

Thanks for that, note taken. I normally just go with the 12v tester as I can never remember.

nothing wrong with going direct from battery as long as you put an inline fuse between the battery and the socket, preferably as close to the battery as possible.

Connecting direct to the battery is poor practice, as the battery terminals are subject to a harsher chemical environment.
Once it's be done the temptation is very strong to put the next new connection there too, then you end up with a messy looking amateur looking arrangement .

Also there is the very real risk of the car going up in flames.

No accessory in any car is connected straight to the battery.

If it is wired through the ignition you are assured that "when it's off it's OFF"

if the fuse is close to the battery, then with a short, the fuse will trip out rendering the circuit no risk. but i agree, better practise is to wire internally.

As Minors don't have an accesory on switch onthe ignition, I personally prefer a ciggy lighter socket wired to be constantly live. It means you can use whatever you're using, say phone charger, sat nav or other modern elctronic gizmo etc, regardless if the engine is runnign or not.
Just need to rewire the 'modern' Land Rover to be constantly on now...