same vehicle. should i get another dc cord? what about having the electral on my vehicle checked? 94 chevy corica. i no longer have the original dc cord. the only ones i seen so far are from radioshack and walmart. what about the fuse in it. any specks to look for on the fuse or dc adaptor? what about this center piece should be positive or negative?
Is this with an adapter plugged into the cigarette lighter socket? Has the lighter been used very much before you started trying to run the radio? If this is the case there may be a build up of corrosion in the socket that may need to be taken care of. (In the worst case the whole socket assembly may need to be replaced.) I've got a couple older trucks I picked up for use as `farm vehicles' Both the `heavy half' 4X4 truck's we use for general `farm chores' and the 3/4T 4X4 `Snowplow' truck's lighter sockets had been used with lighters and had problems supplying a steady/reliable connection with pretty much all of the assorted adapters I normally use for scanners, GPSes, ETC.. I initially tried cleaning their contacts with limited success and eventually just went and replaced the socket assembly which cleared up my problems. (I also have since added a couple more of the sockets so that I can run multiple devices and charge up a couple rechargeable lights and their spare batteries that we carry in both trucks. All of the sockets are `protected?' with the same size, 20AMP, fuse that the factory socket called for. I rely on the fuse in the adapter to `protect' what the adapter is powering.) Fortunately, during the time I was having my problems I never had anything `untoward' happen to any of the things I had connected. Mainly it was just an annoyance factor of having things going off and on when I least expected/wanted them to do so.
As for the scanner-side connector's polarity the center contact is positive and the outside/barrel is negative. The `lighter socket plug', OTOH has the center positive and the outer contacts negative. (And *usually* the center contact is also where you will find the fuse which should most likely be a standard 2AMP quick blow fuse. (Though I have seen some with as small as 1AMP and as large as 3AMP fuses.[The *only* `exception' is the one for a couple of our rechargeable lights which came with a 4AMP fuse but, that is kind of a special case because those lights are handheld 1,500 / 2,200 lumen {Can you say `instant daylight'! GRIN!} S&R lights and they have special Lithium Ion batteries that could almost be used to jumpstart either truck. {WAN GRIN!}])
