Can you use a battery tender with a cig. lighter plug to keep a 1973 and 1999 car battery charged?
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Re: Battery tenders
On each car try this -- With the ignition OFF try to operate the cigar lighter. If it works the answer to your question is YES, you can use the battery tender to keep the battery level up by plugging into the cigar lighter. If the answer to your test is NO, you can connect the battery tender directly to the battery.Terry -
Re: Battery tenders
I was talking with Tom Hill about this in Florida. He said that C6's and I believe he said C5's could use the cigarette/cigar lighter. Also, that all C4's and earlier must be connected to the battery due to the limitations in the wiring. As I recall it was a safety issue, like a fire.
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Re: Battery tenders
For C4 (and probably later), they market a cigarette lighter mini-harness for a 9V battery to maintain presets if parasitic loss kills your battery. With alternators of that era, dead batteries were frequent. I had (still have) one of those thingies for my 87, and for the few times it was needed, it seemed to work OK. However...I never felt real comfortable having it connected and Battery Tender is a much better option. Point of this is to confirm that lighter circuits are hot in C5s, and C6s (as Henry said) and even C4s.
Battery Tender Plus comes with an accessory pigtail for battery connection with a male/female plug and cover. On a C6, the pigtail is just the right length to connect the battery and fish through the passenger side fender vent. While driving, the sealed plug is completely invisible just inside the fender vent. While parked in the garage, I keep the car on the Tender by finding the lead and plugging it in. It requires I walk around the car, but the hood doesn't have to be opened. JUST REMEMBER TO UNPLUG IT BEFORE BACKING OUT (my alarm is the BT being pulled off the shelf
). Put this item at the top of your "preflight check list", however short it may be.
This isn't rocket science, but offered as another possible alternative to a potential fire hazard. Simply remove the connection harness for judging.Comment
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Re: Battery tenders
That's what I do with the Ctek 3300 I use on my 67--connect the pigtail to the battery posts, and there's a water tight disconnect plug with cover. My "alarm" is different. The Ctek comes with a black nylon carrying bag with Ctek in large white letters on it, that has a nice loop in the end suitable for hanging. I slide the loop over the turn signal lever, feed the carrying bag through the steering wheel spokes so it lays across the steering wheel horn button.Battery Tender Plus comes with an accessory pigtail for battery connection with a male/female plug and cover.
JUST REMEMBER TO UNPLUG IT BEFORE BACKING OUT (my alarm is the BT being pulled off the shelf ). Put this item at the top of your "preflight check list", however short it may be.
This isn't rocket science, but offered as another possible alternative to a potential fire hazard. Simply remove the connection harness for judging.
And my "ritual" is always the same. Park car, pop hood & connect the Ctek, drop hood and then hang the carrying bag on the turn signal lever, laying it threw the spokes and across the horn button. On driveaway, the last thing I do, is remove the carrying back and sit it by the Ctek.
The things one must do to fool proof a car from "brain dead moments"
As for using the cigarette lighter to charge, I do that with my 2006 Porsche (as that is the approved method for my year); on my 67, I figured it was a bad idea/would not work, and did not know for sure why. I do now.Comment
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Re: Battery tenders
1967 was the first year the Corvette had a fuse in the lighter feed circuit; don't know if that continued through the C3 era or not.Comment
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Re: Battery tenders
The cigarette lighter in a 1973 functions with the key off so the battery could be back fed with a tender. The circuit is protected by a 20amp fuse.Comment
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