Electric tyre pump, swapping the lighter plug for crocadile

[-Ali-]

I've got one of those tyre inflators that plugs into a cigarette ligher socket, is it possible to cut off the male socket and replace it with crocadile clips to attach to my bike battery?

[The Artist]

What I did was this. Took a 12v compressor apart so it would fit in the space above my battery. Chopped off the cigarette lighter adapter so 2 bare wires and wired in a switch. Screwed the wires onto my battery terminals so it was always connected, then when I needed it I just flicked the switch.

This was at a time when I had a slow puncture so needed it regularly so in answer to your question yes you can.

[andybon]

You could also get a car lighter socket from any motorfactors and wire it to the battery with an inline fuse, And put it in the space under your seat. Could also come in usefull for a phone charger aswell.

[-Ali-]

Awesome. There are two wires which one do i attach to the positive terminal and which to the negative?

[duhawkz]

usually on stuff like that one wire is black and the other is black with a white tripe

as far as i know black - & Black/white +

[Blue_SV650S]

Some of these plugs have a fuse in them, clealry if you snipped it off and crocodile clip it, then you have done away with that fuse.

As someone else said, you can get one of these:-

https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CROCODILE-CLIPS-LIGHTER-12V-SOCKET-ADAPTOR_W0QQitemZ180367925386


Obviously can get them on eBay, but your local motor-world should do them - Job done ...
____________________
The purpose of life is to fight maturity.

[G]

I've gone the cigarrete lighter socket route in the past (wired in. not croc clips), however on my KTM for my spain trip I wanted something a bit more compact.
It already has fused 'accessory' sockets (just female spade connectors), so I wired in a set of extra sockets from vehicle wiring products.
These were used to power gps/battery charger/laptop etc.
I stripped all the plastics off one of the small compressors, found it sucked, so did the same to the one stuck on to my Wickes jump starter, which was much better. I lost track of the polarity, but it seemed to work just as well either way.
Means I can let the tyres down to <10 psi for dirt stuff, then have both back up to 35 psi for the ride home within five minutes.

[The Artist]

Pos and neg doesn't matter with those small pumps. It is just a small dc motor.

[Cigaro]

Ally> yes it does - it would run backwards!

[Pete.]

Quite right, if it were AC mains-powered it wouldn't matter. DC it will run backwards.
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[virus]

On cigarette lighter sockets, positive is the centre electrode, and negative is the springs on the side (for male, obviously its the body on female)

Cheers
John
____________________
own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[Blue_SV650S]

The motor will spin the other way if polarity reversed, but if that would mean it would suck instead of blow is dependent on how the valving on the pump works!! i.e. from the pistons point of view, it goes up and down exactly the same regardless of crank rotation/direction. If the pump works such that it has two a one-way valves at the top of the cylinder, one to let to let air in and another beside it to let air out, then it won't make any odds which way the crank is turning.

If it works with 'porting' like a 2-stroke or some sort of cam arrangement, then indeed it will suck. But my guess is these little compressors are just 2 one way valves ...

Anyhoo, if we want to know the polarity of colour coded wires, then after snipping the lighter plug off, plug it in and get a voltmeter on the chopped wires - or do a continuity check if you don't have a lighter socket.

But as someone else said, if they are black wires (not one red one black) then the 'trace'* wire is normally the positive.


*can either be a coloured trace or a bit of extra insulation flappy bit that runs all the way down.
____________________
The purpose of life is to fight maturity.

[The Artist]