Just installed a late model cigarette lighter to my 914. The one that has the big spring and nut to hold the lighter receptacle in place. It blows the 15 amp fuse every time once you turn the key. It blows if the lighter is out of the receptacle. I have used the red wire to test the electric windshield washer and haven't had a problem. If I remove the ground wire off the cigarette lighter the fuse still blows. If I remove the red power wire from the receptacle the fuse doesn't blow. Am I missing a part? Does the red wire go to one side or the other on the receptacle? There doesn't look like anything is stuck in the receptacle.

Thanks,
Buck

The red/black wire should go to the terminal in the very end of the lighter and brown wire to the terminal sticking out the side. If it still shorts after than, then I'd make sure the hot terminal or red/black wire connector isn't bent so it is making contact with the housing. If that doesn't fix it, the spring clip inside might be twisted or bent so it is touching the housing. Here's a pic of how the parts go together. The ears of the spring clip inside should line up with the cutouts on the body so it isn't touching the housing.

I’m guessing you are grounding the power out to the dash frame through the lighter body. First disconnect the power wire and see if you have continuity from the power connection to ground. If so, you have a short in the lighter body itself.

If that tests OK, take the lighter out and see if it works plugged in, but not mounted to the dash. If that works, you need to isolate the lighter from the metal of the dash frame.

The center terminal should be isolated from the body of the assembly.

Test for no continuity (open circuit) between the center terminal and the body with an ohm meter (aka: a multi-meter for people younger than 50 or so) to make sure it's not shorting out internally.

If the red wire is your 'hot' wire, it connects to the center terminal and the flat blade on the assembly's body is ground.

Also, I'd connect the hot wire to the highest rated fuse in the fuse box.

I added a piece of vinyl as a separator between the spring and dash board. Like a little vinyl washer. That seemed to take care of the problem. The assembly all checked out o.k. per everybody's advise.

Buck