Adding Cruise control

[deleof57]

I have the chance to buy a cruise control unit off of a '68 Monaco with a 383. I've been thinking about putting one on my 74 Roadrunner restoration project (440). Would this be a difficult project to deal with. The fix it books Chilton and Hayes, don't cover this item because its something that should be left to professional mechanics. Would I have to look for a special high performance carburetor to deal with the CC. Am I looking at major headache adding cruise control? No, I wouldn't do it myself, I'd have a mechanic who knows his stuff set it up. Cruise control would be a nice add on to have.

 

[super-bee_ski]

DIY !!
If you screw it up, no worries.
You dont have to tell US"...
Just re-fix it.
It is theraputic.

 

[Meep-Meep]

Most of that stuff was added on by the factory with minimal effort so it is possible. By minimal effort I mean they often didn't redesign the entire steering column for one little handle with a switch. Best advice I can give you is get the entire cruise control column and all the stuff that goes with it and take it apart along with your existing column. I bet you will find many similarities and have the parts swapped out pretty quickly.

 

[deleof57]

Cruise control diagrams

I got the cruise control system off the Monaco. The motor had already been removed so the 2 cables and 2 vacuum lines were just just hanging there. I know that one cable (short) connects to the carburetor and the other connects to the transmission. But the vacuum hoses have me stumped. Does anybody have a diagram or pictures of how the system should look when it's on a running vehicle.

 

[deleof57]

Most of that stuff was added on by the factory with minimal effort so it is possible. By minimal effort I mean they often didn't redesign the entire steering column for one little handle with a switch. Best advice I can give you is get the entire cruise control column and all the stuff that goes with it and take it apart along with your existing column. I bet you will find many similarities and have the parts swapped out pretty quickly.


Swapping the turn signal levers will be very easy. The 3 wires in the cruise control lever run inside the lever and into and down the column. But I will probably buy a universal replacement lever because the one off the Monaco doesn't have anything on it that shows how to set, accelerate, slow, or resume on it. There is a button on the end of the turn signal with a spring activated ring on the signal. The ring turns about a 1/4 turn forwards or backwards and springs back to the center. If I didn't have to take the steering wheel off, it would be a very simple change.

 

[MCODECUDA]

I'm sorry that I didn't see your original post until now but you really need to get a complete system from a '70 and up car because one of the vacuum lines that you have goes to a special brake light switch that deactivates the cruise once you hit the brakes. 70 and up cars used a brake light switch with two connections on it that did the same thing so the cruise unit, brake light switch and turn signal lever all need to be the same style or they may not all work together. Your other vacuum line runs off of engine vacuum. If the car had power brakes the vacuum would be tee'd in there off of a special nipple with an extra connection. If your running the stock carb there is a piece of special linkage that needs to be added to the carb lever that the pull cable hooks to. It's not hard to install cruise but the trick is to start with a complete matching sustem.

 

[YY1]

A few month ago, some of us were trying to talk a member into doing a step by step, with pics.

I've seen several late 70's and early 80's trucks in our local salvage yards, that appear to have CC systems identical to the early 70's car systems.

 

[MCODECUDA]

It's been awhile since I last did one but here goes.

From the donor car (start with something that's 70 or newer)

1. Remove the speedo cable off of the tranny.

2. Remove the speedo cable off the back of the speedometer.

3. Remove the brake light switch.

4. Remove the turnsignal lever and the wiring harness that goes to the cruise control unit.

5. Remove the vacuum fitting that the cruise control vacuum line is attached to. Every one that I've done had power brakes and the fitting plugged into the brake booster but if you had manual brakes you would plumb it to the manifold port.

6. Remove the cruise control unit.

7. Remove the special piece of linkage from the carb. It's attached to the throttle lever and is held on with a short drive pin.

8. Reinstall on you car and hope that it works since you're working with 40 year old parts that were tempmental to begin with.