VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Cat's Eye Lighter

I recently bought a cat's eye lighter and the element seems to be bad. It's not the "normal" lighter element so I can't just go buy one. Does anyone know of a source for parts or perhaps someone who rebuilds them?

http://www.aqualitytransmission.com/services.asp?cat=377


It says cigarette lighter repair. Call and ask. They might.

Thanks for the tip Steve. I sent them a message, we'll see.

Got it working but it's a 12v lighter. I'm surprised it's not a 6v since 12v weren't common until the '50s. Oh well, it's for looks anyway so working or not isn't really in the equation. It is kind of cool to watch the "eye" glow as it warms up.

Tiny....Be very careful..When I hear that "It's Just for looks anyway" statement It scares me.....The next thing you know is you wake up and you are covered in chrome!.....ED

No worries there Ed. I follow the same path with my '38 that I did with my old Harley. "Chrome don't get you home...unless you sell it & buy a bus ticket." Chrome is pretty but nothing looks worse than dirty chrome and I'm too lazy to keep it all polished.

I have the same problem only the black plastic part is also broken so need the whole end that screws onto the cats eye part so I just have it in the hole for the looks but would like to find the part to fix it

Waita minute.....Since your car is a correct 6Volt car, you need to give me that 12Volt lighter so I can have it in my incorrect car, and you can still have a correct car. Whata think?

Just kidding. I'd love to have it,if you decide to sell it.

Steve, what you need to do is find a working 6v lighter and we'll trade. A fellow told me that the way to tell a 6v lighter from a 12v is the number of windings of resistance wire in the heating element. He said a 6v has about half the number of windings as a 12v.

I did an ebay search and discovered that the element for a cat's eye is specific to a cat's eye. There were a number of 6v heating elements for sale that wouldn't work on my lighter.

I'll keep an eye open...get it...(an eye open).grin