"Thomas G. Marshall" . com>
wrote in message news:kiAed.679$PZ4.148@trndny07...
> Seth coughed up:
>> "Thomas G. Marshall"
>> . com> wrote in
>> message news:g4Aed.677$PZ4.660@trndny07...
>>> Thomas G. Marshall coughed up:
>>>> Thomas G. Marshall coughed up:
>>>>> I've been ready to make my changes to my cig. lighter from ignition
>>>>> to "always on", and I discovered something semi disturbing before I
>>>>> made the changes.
>>>>>
>>>>> Between the positive and negative terminals of the cigarette
>>>>> lighter (pos is center, and ground/neg is shell) I'm expecting 0
>>>>> resistance.
>>>
>>>
>>> In my haste, I goofed that up of course. I'm expecting infinite
>>> resistance,
>>> and instead and receiving 8. (?), which indicates /some/ sort of
>>> connection
>>> between the two.
>>
>> What reading do you get with the ignition in the on/run position?
>>
>> Some circuits rather than going open when off, go to ground when off.
>> Very important distinction to know to look for when in the business
>> of installing alarms and such.
>
> Well, ...... The fuse is /pulled/.

Yes, I understand the fuse is pulled, but what I don't know is if the fuse
is before or after the control relay. The fuse could be before the control
relay, and if the control relay goes to ground when off, you would still get
a "shorted" reading with the fuse in or out.

> A friend of mine said that cars "in the old days but perhaps still" used
> to
> put capacitors in between the pos and neg of various places in the car to
> act as voltage regulators, to smooth out the spikes and valleys.

I think that went away a while ago as everything went to more modern
electronics which have that built in per device.

> He's saying that might be supplying the resistance. He also said
> something
> I already knew, that 8 Ohms is suspicious, because it's the resistance of
> most speakers.

Possibly just an RF reading. What do you get if you do your same test, but
instead of using the casing of the cig lighter as ground, get your ground
elsewhere? Maybe read your pos at the cig lighter, and ground at the fuse
panel or battery (provided your leads are long enough).

Also, maybe be an obvious question, you are "zeroing out" your ohm meter
before taking readings?

> Any clue here?

Really, all I would do in a case like what you are trying to achieve is take
a 12ga wire, put a 15amp fuse on it (within 6" of source end), a female
spade plug and plug it into one of the BATT connectors at the fuse panel and
run the other end to the pos connector of the cig lighter, capping off the
current pos wire at the cig lighter. Wire tie the new wire out of the way
under the dash and be done with.

When it is time to restore the car to stock, just cut the wire ties, remove
the wire and plug the original plug back into the back of the cig lighter.