Ok so here is my deal, .... i went to napa and bought switches that has blue led lights in

the, they have (3 prongs), well i wanted to hardwire my radar detector to go through the

switch and my cell phone charger as well (have 2 switches). well i took my center console

out and spliced my cigarette lighter with a red wire provided by napa. Well then i used a

female clip that fits the prongs and hooked in to the siwtch and nothing no power. well

when i hook something in to the cigarette lighter it works but hooking up to the switch it

won't. I am looking for any comments or idea to make it work i am getting very

frustrated. Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again

 

Maybe pics might help of what you are hooking up and a description of what the wires and connectors are?

 

the wires is a 8 gauge red wire from napa, and im trying to run that as my positive and run it from cig lighter to the switch as positive then hook the other 2 from the wire off the charger and radar cord

 

any help please?????

 

Definitely need to see a pic of your set up. Trying to follow with what you provided and my first question is "and your ground is where?"

 

did you connect a good ground??? you need a positive coming from your power source to the switch. then from the switch you need a positive going to the object then the return wire from the object needs to go to ground. is this how you hooked it up??? also you might want to put an inline fuse for your RD.

 

what i did is ran a positive from the cigarette lighter and spliced it in to the positive running into the back of the lighter....... then i put a female clip on both wires coming from the radar, and put those clips along with thw previous positive to the 3 prong switch

 

Like I said...where's your ground?

You have to have a circuit...you just can't connect a hot and hope it works. You have to have a circuit for the current to flow through. The part you are missing just from a quick glance is taking the negative from your RD and grounding it to the frame...not running it back to the switch. The switch can't be in place for both positive AND negative...it just doesn't work that way.

Re-read powerbalt's instructions...they're pretty accurate for basic wiring.

 

ok thanks for the help

 

No problem...hope it works out for ya.

If you are still having problems, let me know. I might need to see some pics of your set up.

Also...just to make things easier on you...run the power from the lighter to one of the side posts of the three pronger, and put your power out to the RD on the center.

 

I see what your saying you did. almost sounds like you sent power to both wires coming from the RD. Is the switch you bought illuminated??? One wire from the RD needs to go to the switch and the other wire from the RD needs to go to ground. All the switch does is make and break the current. The ground is constant. or you can wire it up where the switch makes and breaks the ground. I personally always make the switch have the current. also 8 gauge wire is way oversized. 12 is what i always use in auto applications when putting in lights and such.
here is a simple diagram i made for you:

 

yes the switch i bought has a blue led, i am gng to be running two switches for radar and cell phone charger, the switch has 3 prongs (prong 1 Power) (prong 2 Constant)(prong 3 ground) to me it seems liek the switch neeeds to have a ground wire running from the switch to a ground area, am i correct in reading this other you areonly using 2 of the 3 prongs on the switch?

 

run a ground wire from the ground on the switch to a good ground and then your switch will be illuminated.... but yeah hook it up like the diagram. it should work no problem.

 

k thanks i tried a little bit ago but am too ******* tired and will do it in the morn thanks for your help i really appreciate it

 

no problem. anytime

 

First off... did you ever look at my how to? shows you how to wire a switch... guess the search button was hidden for you. do this, ground the radar to somthing. then splice a wire into cigar lighter (12v+) run it to switch (end prong) then run a wire from the middle prong on the switch to the radar. No need for ground. as i have basicly the same setup.