'Nuther nonfunctioning cruise issue from a newby

[Begster]

I agree with Talyn, put that vacuum canister back in.

Talyn, reading back to the last page, you said that lack of vacuum won't cause the cruise to shut off. I had a '99 that didn't have the dash light functioning when I got it, never had a problem with the cruise turning on or staying on. I took off the vacuum canister one day when removing the bumper, and after that I had troubles with the cruise not turning on, or turning on then cutting out after a while.

I always figured that there was a small vacuum leak at the connector to the canister, as it was pretty lose when I put it back on, and that the servo didn't have enough vacuum to hold the vehicle at a cruise. Would you say this wasn't happening?

 

[Talyn]

When you say turning on, do you mean a problem it maintaining speed, or its won't turn on at all? When I say turn on, I'm talking about the light on the dash coming on and activating the system. If the light comes on but it won't actually set or hold speed it can definitely be a vac issue. I had a problem with my cruise once where it would just keep accelerating which turned out to be the servo. It wasn't venting.

 

[Begster]

I'm talking about I hit the buttons to activate the cruise control, and nothing physically happened.

The dash light, whether burnt bulb or some other reason, never turned on, even when the system was working properly.

For the first few months I had it, no problems with the cruise, with the exception of the light never coming on. The only thing I changed was I disconnected the vacuum canister at one point, and I then started having issues with the cruise.

I would be on the highway not touching anything, with cruise working properly, then all of a sudden it would be as if I hit the off button, when in fact I didn't touch anything. Other times, it just wouldn't turn on at all. (When I say turn on, I mean it wouldn't take over and hold the vehicle at that desired speed. I had no electronics to indicate the system was on or off.)

 

[Talyn]

Your referring to different "turn on" than I am. But your situation can happen due to lack of the canister or vac leak.

 

[joe_peters]

There could be a multitude of problems:

Burnt indicator bulb.
Bad or out of adjustment brake/clutch switch.
Bad vacuum reservoir or other leak in the vacuum system.
Bad clock spring.
Bad servo.

You could have some combination of the above. Start with the quick and easy--is the vacuum reservoir there, and will it hold vacuum? Are the vacuum lines intact? When you apply vacuum to the servo does it draw? Is the indicator bulb good? Test/adjust the brake/clutch switches--are they good?