Installing a new cruise control kit

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Installing a new cruise control kit

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

I remember seeing these kits years ago. Great write up Carl!

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I wanted to do it in case anyone did one of these kits and puts two magnets on the driveshaft (the kit has 2 in the box). It has literally consumed my thinking time for days now trying to figure out why the heck it works perfect but only up to 52 mph! I may take some more detailed pictures and add them later.

I told Jake ( he actually goes by "Carl" ) that I was glad he was the guinea pig for this! I may try to put one on my 66 if I can figure out a way to hide the servo and the lever. I've read a ton about these kits trying to figure out what was wrong with it and most guys say they've had them for years and the only thing that ever goes wrong is the magnets coming loose.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

There was a bit of irony to this whole ordeal sorting this out. We were both searching for info online, and I found this in a thread on a Chevy van forum. It's a 15 year old post, Dec 2004! Notice what I bolded----

12-30-2004, 02:27 AM

GraphikWerks,

Don't worry about brake pedal incompatibility. I installed several of those Dana cruise controls on my cars and never used that cheesy brake pedal switch.

Instead, go to Radio shack and get a 12 volt relay. Wire the coil to the brake light switch and ground and use the normally closed contacts of the relay in place of that pedal switch. Works like a charm.

The one with the built-in vacuum pump seems to work better on smaller engines than the one that uses intake vacuum. I installed one of those on a 65 Corvair. I mounted the servo unit in the engine compartment and extended the wires to reach the turn signal lever. I spent the extra money for the replacement turn signal lever and it looked almost factory.

Carl,

Maybe your Audiovox cruise control has a limited top speed because you have too many magnets on your drive shaft. Try taking half of them off.

[This message has been edited by dieselvan (edited December 30, 2004).]

68 Grande · Guru

I am really looking forward to driving the Grande back and forth to Morden next year. Its about a 120 km drive from Wpg and it is going to be real nice having the cruise. The big block cruiser will be ready to hit the highway next year with a Speedostat cruise, a 3 1/8 turn Saginaw steering box, new front suspension bushings, a Rosenort Motors wheel alignment and some fancy wheels!

68sd396rag · Poncho Master!

well done guys! Great option for sure!!

1965CS · Guru

I installed a mid 70's Simpson Sears cruise control in my 65 several years ago and was surprised to find that it still works. The magnet was missing so I used a one that I already had and set the sensor depth per instructions, worked fine. There were several adjustments for the low and high speed settings as well as the sensitivity but after some fine tuning, it does the job. So I would think that only one magnet is needed.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Great write up. Cool option!

Prefectca · Poncho Master!

I also installed those kits when I worked at CTC in the early 80s. The two magnets are used on front wheel drive cars on the drive axle. Two are needed because the axle rotates slower than a driveshaft in a rear wheel drive car.

Paul

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Where did you "drill a hole, add a screw"?

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Oh, and that Speedostat unit sure looks familiar.

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Here's a link to a thread where these cruise unit were discussed previously.
I haven't taken a look at the links that Greaser provided, but I'm curious if they show the cable installation.

canadianponcho.activeboard.com/t65044887/spinners-and-dana-aftermarket-cruise-control/

68 Grande · Guru

seventy2plus2 wrote:
Oh, and that Speedostat unit sure looks familiar.

Good eye seventy2plus2, ...yes indeed, this Speedostat system originates from your parts inventory!

I can't wait to test the new system out but Carl won't release the Grande from his Morris service shop! I am hoping to get the car back sometime before spring, lol. (I am kidding!)

But I am not kidding about being excited to have cruise as I am not used to driving a car with my foot constantly stuck to the gas pedal. Funny how it was no big deal back in the day but now we are so used to having and using cruise control in today's vehicles.

-- Edited by 68 Grande on Friday 18th of October 2019 08:13:44 PM

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

68 Grande wrote:
seventy2plus2 wrote:
Oh, and that Speedostat unit sure looks familiar.

Good eye seventy2plus2, ...yes indeed, this Speedostat system originates from your parts inventory!
I can't wait to test the new system out but Carl won't release the Grande from his Morris service shop! I am hoping to get the car back sometime before spring, lol. (I am kidding!)
But I am not kidding about being excited to have cruise as I am not used to driving a car with my foot constantly stuck to the gas pedal. Funny how it was no big deal back in the day but now we are so used to having and using cruise control in today's vehicles.

-- Edited by 68 Grande on Friday 18th of October 2019 08:13:44 PM

Just a warning to you guys, this guy 68_Grande is a bad bad influence...... He gets me to put a cruise kit in his car. I really really like it now that I got it working. So I couldn't help myself. This showed up at my parcel pickup depot at the border yesterday and I went and picked it up today. Now I have to figure out how to hide as much of it as I can on my "original" car...

And I just noticed the left over roast beef and carrots in the picture...that was NOT included with the cruise kit!

20191020_164542[1].jpg

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Oh, and for the record, this kit uses 2 magnets where Carl's kit used only 1 magnet as I explained in my frustrated post above and paste below-

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"""Carl owns the 68. He and I talked and emailed back and forth with all kinds of possibilities of what could be wrong. We knew the manual that I had used that came with the kit was for a similar kit and thought it would be correct. However he had a another manual for a similar kit and looking in there it said that rear wheel drive vehicles use one magnet for the sensor instead of two that the first manual described. The more we discussed it, the more I thought about, it the more it made sense that the module was not able to process the volume of pulses it was receiving from the sensor. With two magnets on the drive shaft the pulse count is double. Because the cruise has a top speed limiter and will not let you set it above a certain miles per hour it made sense. The most I could get out of it was about 52 miles per hour with two magnets which would be 104 miles per hour with one magnet. That all made sense. So today I took one magnet off. The road test went perfect. Went up to 70 miles per hour, pushed the set button and it locked in perfectly at 70. Victory!"""

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And there's a couple of other differences too. His kit has the yellow control module, mine has the black module. His kit has no provision for a deceleration switch (cruise kicks off in the event of a very hard stop via mercury switch) and my kit has one. His kit came with a cable permitting the servo to be mounted on away from the engine, mine has no cable, just a short wire out of the servo where the short chain hooks on.

I like the idea of using a cable and mounting the servo remotely (maybe try to hide it somewhere on my car) so I may buy a cable and add it.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I just drove his car home to Winnipeg (about 35 minutes of highway driving). I am VERY impressed with this cruise unit. There's a stretch of the highway that is fresh, perfectly flat prairie, perfectly smooth highway. I set the cruise at exactly 60 mph to try it and the needle never moved enough off the white 60 mark on the speedometer to let me see the entire white line. At most it dropped about 1/2 a mile per hour. I pulled over a couple of times and when I pulled back on and hit "resume" it went back to exactly 60. I'm sold on these units. I think there will be one going into my car if I can figure out a way to hide the servo.

On a side note I somehow managed to pull apart a connector on his wiring harness that is from the alternator and when the car was shut off in his garage it wouldn't even crank. hmm Not happy with myself for that one...

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I saw this kit on ebay this morning. I don't know how many of you guys are familiar with the Dana kits but this one seems to be unique. I've never seen a control module or servo like this one. Most of the kit is identical to the one I installed on Carl's Grande Parisienne but those two pieces are nothing like the others.

www.ebay.com/itm/193199996347

68 Grande · Guru

4SPEED427 wrote:
I saw this kit on ebay this morning. I don't know how many of you guys are familiar with the Dana kits but this one seems to be unique. I've never seen a control module or servo like this one. Most of the kit is identical to the one I installed on Carl's Grande Parisienne but those two pieces are nothing like the others.

www.ebay.com/itm/193199996347

Price is right at $45, but I haven't seen one with this type of module. So far I have seen the yellow module, a black module and a blue module similar in size to the yellow. But this seems to be different altogether.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

It appears the module is also the switch to operate it. I think you are supposed to hang it under the dash and you reach down to set the cruise. That seems awful inconvenient. Great price though.

The wiring harness, the sensor, the brake pedal switch are all the same as in the other kits.

Gasonmiles · Addicted!

I guess I need to get a cruise control for my 68, I want to be like the cool kids. Carl & Carl, Thank You for sharing, always good stuff here

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I just picked up my 3rd kit at the border. I want to install one, have a spare on the shelf and the third one was too cheap to just let someone else have it, I had to grab it!

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I still have that Sears unit I could let go.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I know this is an old thread but I have a question for anyone who may have installed one of these kits. Since I installed this first one I've likely installed more than a dozen of these kits. Specifically, has anyone put one of these kits in a car that has an engine with a "big" cam installed?

I put a kit into a 427 Nova this week, a 550 hp 427 Nova. The cruise has a bit of a surge to it. I'm guessing that because of the cam (lots of overlap) the engine might not be making enough vacuum, or a stable enough vacuum source for the cruise control servo. I've never had this issue on any of the kits I've put in for guys but I've also never installed a kit on such a high horsepower engine.

A hot rodder friend of mine suggested a vacuum reservoir may help the surge. I adjusted the module and was able to remove a good bit of the surge issue but it still is noticeable, it's not rock solid at a locked in speed like these kits usually have been any other time I've put one in a car.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I had a request from a site member to post the wiring diagram for these kits.

Prefectca · Poncho Master!

A vacuum tank with a check valve would certainly help with the surge if its caused by the camshaft overlap. For the best results I think you would need a vacuum can with at least the volume of one liter. I think one liter of volume would probably be enough volume to apply the servo and the check valve between the vacuum can and the engine would isolate the cruise unit from the surge.

Paul