At 01:20 PM 3/7/2008, Jim Felder wrote...
>I'm trying not to break any of the plastic parts on my illuminated
>cigarette
>lighter which has always allowed anything plugged in to hang at an
>angle and
>bounce around while driving.
>I can see if I get the lamp assembly off that the thing may slide out
>forward, but how do you get the lamp assembly off. And, other than
>buttressing around the inside of the dash with JB weld or some similar
>mess,
>what can be done to steady the socket?

If you remove it, you will break it. 99.9% Guaranteed. If you want to
try, you have to push the green plastic "catches" out from inside of
the lighter (they snap into the metal cylinder) enough so the metal
part can slide forward, out of plastic light assembly.

What you are experiencing is the difference between a DIN sized cigar
lighter socket and an SAE one. The SAE size, used by most automakers,
is a bit smaller.

You can get a replacement from VW which is SAE sized. There will be two
issues - it's made to go in a thicker panel, so it will be a loose fit
in a Vanagon dash unless you rig something, and the connection on the
back is different (for both power and lighting), so you'll have to
splice some wires. I did it on mine, and now all the common 12v devices
fit snugly.

I've got the VW part numbers somewhere, if anyone is interested in
pursuing this.