2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Cruise Control

[DDawkins]

I have a 98 with almost 250K and this past weekend the cruise started acting up. I have not started looking into it yet but am asking for suggestions on where to start. When cruise cuts out, resume does not work. I have read about brake switch issues. I tried holding brake pedal up with my foot for a short time and cruise still dropped out. I am thinking it must be losing power through short or bad ground for split second due to the fact that resume will not activate after cruise cuts out. Any suggestions on where to start?



Don

 

[fest3er]

Must be a design feature. My 98 was doing that from about 150K on. Finally around 200K it stopped working altogether. Now, the only thing that works is the power switch.

I manually operated the vascuum unit; it works just fine. I tested the steering wheel switch and could swear that all the switches measured the correct resistance.

As others have posted here in the past, I (and you) will likely have to trace each individual wire to determine where the fault is. Perhaps instead of futzing with that, I might bypass that whole system (steering wheel to PCM) and build an external switch with the correct resistances connected to the PCM. If that works, I'll know where the problem is. If it doesn't work, I'll know the problem is between the PCM and the vascuum unit.

 

[DFerverda]

Hi don, welcome to the forums. .
If your truck is a 98. 5 (24 valve) I would start with the vacuum line. Mine was cracked and that kept it from working all the time. The cruise is located under the battery box on the drivers side.
If you have a hand held vacuum pump, you can disconnect the line on the vacuum pump that goes to the firewall (the big one) and pull a vacuum on it. It should hold, if it does not start unhooking the small plastic lines going to the cruise, cad,(if 4x4) and to the heater control box, that one will go in the cab on the passenger side.
Do them 1 at a time and plug the hole you took each one out of. When you figure out which one is leaking, you can fix. It may be the cruise control, but it could be one of the other ones, and not making enough vacuum to hold the cruise.
If your truck is a 12V i dunno.
Dirk

 

[DDawkins]

I have tried doing a search on Cruise Control and unfortunatley it looks like I'm in good company. I will definately start with the vacuum line. My a/c/heater vacuum line went this past winter due to brittle line. It is a 12V.

Don

 

[CCiatteo]

I had the same problem on my 97 and eventually the cruise wouldn't work at all. While replacing the batteries I looked under the driver side tray and found that my vacuum pot had a hole in it from battery leakage. New vacuum pot from the dealer $60 and all my problems went away and for some strange reason my fuel economy went up too:-laf

 

[GSchlegel]

I agree, look under the driver side battery, my '96' lost its cruise and the problem was the vac. line. Battery acid ate through a line. I bought some tygon? tubing to slip over the tubing. Cruise acts as good as new now.

 

[DDawkins]

Well, it looks like problem is solved. I did not find a problem with the vacuum lines and was not able to duplicate the problem moving the steering column tilt. Shortly after though, the tach started to tic. I then noticed that cruise drops out when tach made a hick-up. I started tracing the wires and found that just below where the engine speed sensor wiring comes out of the large harness on top of the engine that the two wires were rubbing against the head. Upon closer examination, it was revealed that the wiring was chafed just enough to be grounding to the head. Made the repair and all seems well after approx 50 miles.



Thanks to all for your assistance with this issue!



Don Dawkins

98 2wd 12 valve 245k

 

[fstfish66]

my cruise just started acting up 2002 98,600 miles,,,it only powers up and sets whe nthe truck is cold,,,,once the temp guage comes up the cruise will not power on,,,heater vents working ok at the moment,,,its winter now,,,i guees it wil stop all together once warm weather arrives,,,,



ANY IDEAS???