sorted
in the end, i bent one of the two positive pins into the centre so it allows the usb charger to make decent contact. this means the cigarette lighter will no longer fit, but who cares about that?
ive found that my tomtom satnav is very borderline on receiving a strong enough signal to navigate me, i have to put it as far down the windscreen as possible to get a signal, and even then some times it loses where i am!
next thing so sort out is the GPS receiver on the boot, no signal detected so i assume its the receiver thats dead.
ive got vcds and a pukka cable coming next week, so look forward to getting stuck into the electronics. im an IT infrastructure engineer by trade so this is right up my street