Computerless Cruise Control

[pockets1776]

Does anyone know, or remember how it was done? I'm not talking about that choke cable, hand throttle in MY Gramp's truck. I'm looking for something like was OEM in the Sixties & Seventies. The truck is intended to be a sexy little tow rig/hot rod and will be doing some distance.

Thanks,
Greg

[Mach428]

My 1973 Grand Prix had cruise control and I had to take the servo apart. It sat on the inner fender and had a speedo cable that went from the speedometer to the servo and one from the servo to the trans. There was also a cable that ran from the servo to the throttle linkage. The operation of this unit used interior centrifugal weights, which would expand with increased RPM's and contract with decrease RPM's, thus forcing the throttle cable accordingly. There wasn't much in the way of electronics as you see today.

When the cruise control was set at a certain speed, the servo would use the speedo cable as a means of measuring and maintaining the speed.

[Kurt Combs]

I could be wrong, but I think the late seventies dents had cruise control that might give you a basis to work from. You could post the question at fordification.net and see if anyone has more information.

[motzingg]

I just started working on this again... its a project that has been on my back burner for awhile, but the late 80's-90's trucks (eec-4) used a totally standalone system that i'm going to be trying to replicate using an Arduino microcontroller. Getting the standalone system integrated into a bumpside wouldn't take much as it is a totally independant system from the computer (unless you are using an auto trans)

Here is the wiring diagram for the standalone system:



to make it work, you'd need to replicate the switch/resistor majigger in the steering wheel. For mine, i think i'm only going to use a 2 position momentary toggle as a 'set' feature, and just plan on using the brake light switch to cancel, and not worry about 'accel' or 'decel' because they usually dont work that well anyhow.

you'd have to figure out how to get a VSS pickup into your transmission. not too hard if you have a transmission that survived into the electronic years, most should have it, otherwise you could maybe pull a distributor tach signal maybe (if you have manual trans) , the cruise computer wont care what the input signal is, just that it stays the same. VSS is probably a basic magnetic reluctor style switch so you

the rest of the hardware comes out of any truck from the same era. My '91 4.9L had a cable-connected vacuum actuator that could be adapted to anything just by changing the other end of the cable. All the computer knows is that it is going to either increase or decrease the vacuum based on keeping the VSS pulse the same.

hook up the stop light switch as in the diagram. bam you're done.

you could hook up the whole steering wheel switch gear or make your own switch gear, i'm just going to do the 'on/off' and 'set' feature and thats it because i dont want a bunch of buttons all over ruining the look in the interior

[motzingg]

some later model cars ditched the vacuum actuator all together and went to a simpler servo system, here is a '97 ford escort that uses a very simple standalone system

[motzingg]

OH

ok lets do a bit more research and make it even easier...

some models use a VSS that actually plugs in and replaces the 'standard' ford speedo cable lower dingus.

i would bet (and i'm not a betting man) that there were ford models made in the transitional years that have the VSS sensor as a part of the cable itself.

wait, maybe my m5r2 is that way? hmm, i dunno.. i'm pretty sure the speedo driven gear and cable end housing piece is the same on many different ford transmissions so it should be easy to work with.

[motzingg]

while i'm at it:

http://www.thorssell.net/hbook/ccexpl.html

[motzingg]

ok i was right/wrong according to this photo, the M5R2 does have the VSS built into the speedo cable for the 88-93 models with mechanical speedo.

just get a junkyard speedo cable from one of these trucks and it should be fairly easy to adapt to any other ford transmission mechanical speedo cable.

[HIO Silver]

Here is an option from Dakota Digital:

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/ ... /prd46.htm

"Electric Servo Cruise Control for Vehicles with Cable Driven Speedometers - Includes electric servo, mounting hardware, wiring harness, electric speed sensor and choice of handle. Speed sensor attaches in-line with GM type-speedometer cable.

If installing on any vehicle that does not have an electronic Vehicle Speed Sender (VSS) or does not have a GM- type speedometer cable please order the CRS-3000-4165. The CRS-3000-4165 kit includes a magnetic drive shaft senders where magnets SEN-4165 are attached to the drive shaft to create a speed signal.

No vacuum needed for easy Installation.

Unit measures 5.5" x 4" x 3"
"

[motzingg]

hmm thats actually not an insane price point for dakota digital, but not exactly 'plug and play' for us ford guys.

the escort system is almost exactly the same thing, and would only require very slightly more work to get installed, meaning you would have to wire up the switchgear yourself. the vss thing would be the exact same hookup.

[pockets1776]

Thanks, gang, for all the help. You have given me a direction to follow.

Greg B.