'97 Cig Lighter port

The port has been working just fine for a 12V charger I have had in it. Last night I plugged in a small inverter and it stopped working. The fuse is fine, but I no longer get power from the cig port. I have a new port to replace it with but I need to know a few things:

Is the GR/R wire a 12V wire, that is coming off of the ignition source? I think that port only worked when the key was set to ON.

How does that black plastic setup come out? I am afraid of breaking it. I can't see and screws or tabs, and I tend to break these things when trying to put too much muscle on it.

 

Question, did you check to see if something else worked in the port first? Perhaps the inverter is either making a bad connection, or there is a poor connection at the port. I would check that before replacing something.

 

Yeah, it was fine before I plugged that in - been working for a long time. I read on some site that there is a fuse or something at the back of the port that tends to blow before the fuse. I am fine with it not working, I can splice into the wire to gain the voltage if that GR/R wire is indeed a 12V, which I think it is. But I would like to pull that lighter assembly out, and it seems to be stubborn.

UPDATE:

I was able to remove the power connector off the back of the lighter, and determined with my voltmeter is it a 12V feed as I was pretty sure it was. I'll just splice in this new port for now and leave the original assembly alone.

 

I get that it was fine before that. What I am asking is AFTER you put in the inverter, and things stopped working, did you then go back and plug something ELSE into the power point to see if perhaps it was a bad connection to the inverter.

 

The reason it isn't functioning is because the tiny fusible link that is on the back of it has broken. It is a tiny grey wire looking thing on the back of the cig lighter port. If you just replace that with some wire you'll be good to go. Happens pretty often on these trucks.

 

Or just take it apart and remove that little fiber board on the back and put it back together. When I bought mine the cigarette lighter port didn't work, and that was the fix.

 

Haven't tried that but I'll take your word for it as it seems then the right parts would be making contact.

 

Yeah, I tried a few different things that were known to work. I figure that inline fusible link blew.

Since I couldn't figure out now to remove the cig port without destroying something, I was able to remove the power connector harness from the rear of it, and I trimmed down a spade connector to fit into the 12V slot, and rigged up a new power port using the factory connector. For now I just have it off to the side until I get the desire to try to remove that old port.

 

Thanks, I'll dig into it again some day. I have added a port for now, will take pics later and post them up.