No power coming out of the cig lighter assembly, so I am swapping it out with another housing just ordered. I figure this is a simple task, but any advice on "ease of removal" would be appreciated, thanks.

You have to unscrew the housing from behind the dash. Just hold the cig lighter by the ring on the front of the dash and take your other hand and grab the whole round cig house and turn anti-clock-wise.

If that don't work then try a large hot projectile.

FYI, I bought a cigarette lighter from Firebirdcentral.com and it worked great until I plugged my iPhone charger in. Never worked after that. Not sure why but perhaps the phone chargers draw to many amps.

I'd say the lighter draws a lot more than the charger.

Fuse too small. iPhone can draw up to 4amps

Seems to me the cigar lighter draws 10+ amps, although not continuously, and the circuit is protected by a 20 amp fuse. I'll have to put an ammeter on one day and test. Mine runs a 12 volt air compressor with no problems.

Good info, thanks all.