18 Cruise Control

 

On December 3, 2008, I bought an Audiovox CCS-100 cruise control unit which was being closed out by Checker Auto Parts. The price was $13.76, but since I was an employee, I got a 20% discount. The final tab was $11.86 including a 7.72% sales tax. Until last week the unit sat in the original box taking up space in my garage. Then a sorely needed and massive downsizing effort started at my small  house. "Use it or get rid of it" applied to everything we owned. I decided to install the cruise control in the coupe.

 

The installation manual which came with the cruise control was good with respect to the mechanical installation. It  said to locate an accessible area to mount the cruise control servo that provides a smooth path for the cable with no sharp bends, away from hot, sharp or moving objects, and not on the firewall. Have they ever looked under the hood of a '39 Ford? I chose a mounting location high on the left inner fender panel.

  

  

The cable goes down, curves toward the firewall, then U-turns upward toward the carburetors. I used the bead chain coupling (item 24), the bead chain coupling sleeve (item 23), the bead chain (item 20) and the bead chain eyelet connector (item 25) to make up the cable attachment to the rear carb.

I placed the dash control switch in the center of the dash where the stock radio head mounted. The area is too crowded, so future plans call for a new mounting plate with a little better spacing and possibly the removal of the heat and air conditioning on-off switch (left side of the plate). Considering how long it took to get this far, the future plans may never reach fruition.

 

 

The dash control switch had 6 wires coming from it. Four of them (red, brown. green and yellow) plugged  into the male side of  a 4-pin Molex connector (like a hard drive power connector). Both halves of the connector had a color coded sticker on them. The grey wire plugged into the parking light slot in the car's control panel. The black wire was a ground.

There are six wires and a co-axial pair in the main harness which attaches to the control module incorporated in the Servo. Three of the wires (brown, green and yellow) go to the female half of the Molex connector.  The fourth wire (red) into the female half of the Molex connector comes from a 12 volt supply which is hot  whenever the ignition is on. I used a fused hot lead in the panel, so I didn't need the supplied ATO fuse and holder. The blue wire connects to the negative terminal of the coil and  disengages the cruise control when the clutch is pressed., The purple wire attaches to the brake light switch on the stop light side and  disengages the cruise control when the brake is applied. The red wire attaches to the hot side of the brake light switch. The 15" black wire is a chassis ground. The co-axial pair gray wire is the speed sensor and attaches to the factory VSS (vehicle speed sensor[ if equipped]) or the magnet pickup near the drive shaft (Auto trans, No VSS) or the negative terminal of the coil (Manual trans, No VSS). The black wire in the co-axial pair goes to the magnet near the drive shaft. It is not used if the VSS connection is used, Although the installation manual did not say so, the black wire is not used when the coil (-) connection is used either. A vacuum connection is made from  the intake manifold  to the servo.

I had to use a Dremel  to shorten the cruise control throttle attachment screw so it cleared the idle adjustment screw and spring on the rear carburetor.

I set the DIP switches in the Servo assembly as follows: Pulses per minute: SW1 & SW2 ON  (8000). This is necessary so the cruise control can be set higher than 52 mph. Speed signal: SW3 OFF (tach only) Sensitivity SW4 &SW5 OFF (medium - most cars) I might change this to Low - light cars W/ high horsepower to sooth my ego. Control Switch: SW6 OFF (normally open switch) Tach source: SW7 ON (coil)

On the first road test, the cruise control did not work. Using the trouble shooting section of the manual, I checked the Black wire in the 10-pin connector - grounded - OK,

then the red wire in the 10-pin connector -12V all the time - OK

then the brown wire in the 10-pin connector no voltage under any condition - Oops. 

I disconnected the 4-pin connector and found that the pin on the brown wire wasn't seated in Molex connector. When I pushed the pin in and reconnected the 4-pin connector, the cruise control worked perfectly. 

These units are no longer being supplied nor supported by Audiovox. However, Murphs' Kits

www.murphskits.com is having them reproduced by the original manufacturer (Rostra). The bad news is that they are currently out of stock.