Cruise control, anyone ever put one in?

[yousufwalton]

well the title sums it up, anyone ever done a cruise control ?

[bravekozak]

There are articles listed in the Advanced Search. Be sure to put double quotes around "cruise control". As for myself, the reason I never completed my cruise install is because the twin carb setup only has room for one cable pull. I cannot remember which import had a twin cable (throttle + cruise) box into one cable.
When I find it again, I will complete my install without fail.

[MONSOON]

A very simple search of cruise control install netted this.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?41979-Cruise-control!!!&highlight=Cruise+control+install

The Search function is there for a reason. All you have to do is use it.

[Charlie1717]

Has anyone found another kit? I don't think you can find the kit that king fish found. At least not easily. Is there a universal kit you can still buy that will work?

[yousufwalton]

ok well reading that, do you have to have the tachometer? and what would the difference be to it automatic vs the manual?

[KingFish]

That kit is obsolete. I had to piece it together from many random places.

I would get a newer kit, many are available.

And no, you do not need to have the tach cluster to use the tach signal to drive the CC. In the driver side rear of the engine bay, right by the ignition coil, their is a single connector with a yellow and green wire. This is a tach signal used for testing. I just used a male spade connector into that.

[Skrapbob]

Thanks king, your input into this is much appreciated! I think only the carby cars had a single wire, I cannot find a plug with only one wire in that location. I think I have found the tach signal wire though, it is yellow and blue according to Haynes.

[Skrapbob]

well the title sums it up, anyone ever done a cruise control ?

There are several universal kits available. Vacuum or electronic. I am working with a Rostra universal kit (ebay $180). It comes with no switch though, I am hoping to use a factory 88-89 323 cruise switch. If I ever get past the wiring, it should do the job.

[Bert]

I found a 92 323 LX 5 speed at the JY a few weeks ago that has factory cruise. There is an on/off switch on the dash and then push buttons on the column. Seems like a whole lot of work to put something like that in.

[bravekozak]

The RX-7 cruise switch is a perfect fit for the Festiva dash. Also the Mazda steering column controls with cruise fit right on. The wiring is very simple to provide power through the switch to the steering column controls. I just had to follow the instruction sheet that came with the Ford cruise computer for the other wiring. The hardest part is to find space for the vacuum reservoir and servo valve in the engine compartment if you also have power steering and A/C.
Here is the Festiva cruise install manual that I got from 25horseplay.

[Bert]

The RX-7 cruise switch is a perfect fit for the Festiva dash. Also the Mazda steering column controls with cruise fit right on. The wiring is very simple to provide power through the switch to the steering column controls. I just had to follow the instruction sheet that came with the Ford cruise computer for the other wiring. The hardest part is to find space for the vacuum reservoir and servo valve in the engine compartment if you also have power steering and A/C.
Here is the Festiva cruise install manual that I got from 25horseplay.

Just from trying to remove the intermittent wiper body and staulk plus the integral wiring harness from a 92 323 was already a big undertaking for me a few weeks ago. OEM Cruise control was built-in to the steering wheel that had to be removed. I hate using a hammer and pry bar to wreck otherwise pefectly good pieces of trim but did in this case after 10 minutes of going no-where fiddling while the sun was setting. Mazda doesn't f-around with making sure there are no unsecured wires in and along the steering column. Cruise may be nice but not at all practical if it takes a month of Sundays to scavenge from one car and then re-install on another, IMO.

[zoom zoom]

Lol, you had THAT much trouble pulling a harness and wiper stalk?! Me and Karl pulled an entire dealer installed cruise control from an aspire in Columbus PnP in about 20 minutes, including the bracket for the brake petal switch, ecu and vacuum resovoir things. I wish I would have had the cash or it would be hooked up to my 5th gen 626 steering wheel buttons.

It didn't appear to be a complex system at all, the ecu was zip tied to the stock ecu, 3 wires, power ground, rpm, throttle linkage and vacuum.

Anybody with a socket set and a pocketknife can (should be able to) remove a wiper stalk in about 3 minutes.

[Bert]

Anybody with a socket set and a pocketknife can (should be able to) remove a wiper stalk in about 3 minutes.

I was not entirely sure how and what to remove so was careful. But if you can remove a steering wheel and the attendent plastic covers and get the staulk in 3 minutes you are a better man than me. I had the covers and the wheel off in fairly short order. For me the wire looms that connect to the wiper and light stalk on this car were an SOB to get at and to release. I don't even know if a 92 323 system can be made to work in a Festy; the hazard switch is not on the column. Or do I have to disassemble the wiper mechanism from the light switch and then graft it on to a Festy setup?

[Tim]

I feel like Dr. Frankenstein today, reviving long dead threads and making horrible monsters out of them...

Anyway, almost 10 years ago(!) I successfully retrofitted the cruise control from a 1987-89 Mercury Tracer to my Festiva. This is about as close to a factory (not dealer) cruise control you will get. It was a fairly easy swap; most stuff bolted straight on with little difficulty.

Making the parts physically fit was the easy part, however. The wiring required a fair amount of creativity and research. Fortunately, the cruise control is its own entity and is not controlled by the ECU. With the help of a factory shop manual, I was able to make my own wiring harness and use the Mazda control stalk and switch, for a factory look.

While hooking this all up, I hit a major snag: The Tracer's instrument cluster has a small reed switch near the speedometer assembly that sends a pulse to the cruise control brain box. The Festiva's cluster does not have this, nor does it have a provision for installing the switch. Initially I thought I could bypass the switch by simply shorting the wires out, but I realized it was not just a simple on/off switch. Rather, the switch opens and closes constantly and a rate determined by the speedometer, which it is magnetically coupled to. This open/closing action sends a pulse to the brain box, allowing it to maintain a constant speed.

After I realized this, I was discouraged. Using the Tracer speedometer in the Festiva cluster was out of the question, it would not fit. My only option was to modify a Festiva speedometer to accept the reed switch, which I did. Regretfully I did not document this part, nor take any photos. Kind of like the KFC secret formula I guess, it's that one ingredient that tied the whole thing together.

I don't recall exactly what I did to get the reed switch to work with the Festiva speedometer, it was largely trial and error. I used a Dremel to carve out bits of the plastic enclosure and circuit board to make room for the reed switch, which thankfully is a very small part. To aid in positioning the reed switch, I wired an analog electronic tally counter (not sure what the technical name is) in series with reed switch. I connected a drill to the speedometer to rotate it while I moved the reed switch around the back of the speedometer assembly. Using the Tracer speedometer as a guide, I positioned the reed switch similarly on the Festiva speed and experimented with it until the tally counter started counting in step with the speedometer while varying the drill's RPMs. Eventually I found a spot that enabled me to get the reed switch to work, as well as provide room for mounting and wiring.

Positioning and mounting the reed switch was the hardest part of the installation. I used a Dremel to grind away bits of the plastic speedometer housing and the circuit board to make the reed switch fit, then Superglued it in place. I don't recall having to cut through and/or jump any traces on the circuit board, but at any rate I got it all back together in my Festiva, and was floored when it actually worked!!!!

So there you have it, cruise control expert level. I was considering unravelling the Festiva's wiring harness, taking the cruise control wiring from the Tracer and adding to the bundle and rewrapping it, but at that point I had working cruise control and I was happy.

If someone replicates this, please document it better for all of us to enjoy!


Regards,

Tim

[FestYboy]

Tim, why didn't you use the tach feed for the speedo reed switch? essentially the same signal (though the voltage may be different).