I got a cheaper Cobra radar detector mounted ontop of my dash and have had the plug in plugged into the cigarette lighter ever since I've had it and want to get rid of that damn plug sticking out and want to hard wire it and all I need to know is if I cut the wiring there should be two other wires inside the large wire for ground and power. Its one large wire that runs for the detector, not like the two moulded wires like you'd see on other cigarette wires ya know?

 

Chances are the power core will run through the center and then some insulator around it then wrapped with the ground then the outer cover.

 

I hardwire my radar in my truck. Its easy. First off the center push in pin is your power. The two spring like clips are your grounds. Take apart the adapter and youll find theres two small wires which make up that big wire. They should be red and black.

 

some radar detectors with the single big wire like you talked about are special. I know on some of them you cant just cut the plug off and splice wires, you actually have to buy a hard wire kit (cig plug to 2 wires) to hard wire it. You may want to make sure before you start cutting into it.

 

Also, some of the cigarette lighter plugs act as voltage converters as well. You need to find a way to measure the voltage at the radar side plug to find out if it's 12v or something smaller like 5v. My XM radio unit in the GTO was like that. What I did was pull the springy parts out (center tip and side contacts) and solder wires to them, then use those wires to tie into a switched 12v source. I hid all of that back behind a panel.