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Vacuum ball????

Tacowhip

NAXJA Forum User
Location
New Jersey
Hey guys, I'm trying to get my cruise control to work on my 95 xj sport. The previous owner put an aftermarket bumper on and removed the vacuum ball, and plugged the rubber elbow with a screw. I have the steering wheel with the cruise buttons on the face of the wheel. Would there be a light on the dash or something if the on/off button so pushed for cruise? Also would there be a 4x4 light on the dash also with 4 wheel engaged? I hear the vacuum ball deals with 4x4 engagement also. Thx
 
I'm not too familiar with the '95, but my '98 has a dash light that comes on with the cruise control.

If you want to check your lights, hold in the tripometer reset button and turn the ignition key to the on position. The system will go thru a sort of diagnostic check. Again this may only be for the OBDII crowd and I have no idea what you have.

After checking I found that only a few of the late year '95's came with OBDII.

As far as 4x4, there are XJ's with what is known as a vacuum disconnect front axle. But I believe they are very early models. Earlier than yours anyway. They look like so:
154_0904_02_z%2bdana_30_vacume_disconnect%2bside_view.jpg
 
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I believe my '96 has the same steering wheel as yours. When my cruise control works (roll of the dice--seems to vary depending on the key cycle) I first turn it on by pushing the button farthest to the left (labelled "On/Off"). If it is going to work there will be a small green LED which will light up on the steering wheel in the rectangle next to the On/Off button, where it says "Cruise Control" (That little dot above "Cruise Control" is the LED). Once that green light is on then the set/coast/resume/accel functions will work. No green light, no cruise control.

Since you have not discovered the green light I am inclined to think the lack of a vacuum ball is not your first problem (it might be a problem once you get the electronic side of the picture working).

Mine, being an intermittent problem, makes it fun to diagnose. I will be interested in what you find out with yours. My suspicions are the switch itself or the clock spring, however, given the key cycle nature of my problem I have to wonder if it could be related to the ECU too. It hasn't been a priority and so I haven't dug into it. Please post up whatever you find.
 
8521037d23bbc1375053a85640ff8608.jpg


Ok. Here's my wheel setup. I don't see the green unlit led spot for the on/off on my wheel. Besides a vacuum can issue, you think it's a power problem to the cruise control itself. The previous owner hacked a few things under he dash, and I'm wondering if he yanked the fuse for it or if there's a relay missing or something. I see a relay panel with a few relays on it under the dash next to the wiper module. Anyone know about the fuse panel? I'll take a pic.


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And as far as the vacuum ball is concerned here's what I got. Is the ball at the end of this vacuum circuit? I don't see any other lines down here besides the plugged one.
729564eade4cd9973aa3a106d9e3bf2f.jpg



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Interesting. Where yours says "Speed Control" mine says "Cruise". There is a small (about 1/8") LED on mine. None on yours.

I don't know how you can tell if cruise control is on or not on a '95.

I still don't think the vacuum ball is your primary problem. All that does is provide you with a vacuum reservoir.

The missing fuse might be relevant though.
 
I think there is a LED to indicate when the cruise is on,....I see something on my XJ but it never did work in the years I have this XJ.

The vacuum ball is more of a storage device for the cruise and the AC vents. With that ball/storage device removed, the AC and cruise work just fine on flat road. However, going up hill, the AC resort to the defrost position and the XJ looses speed. On the crest of the hill or going down the other side they both work fine again.

My advice to you is, before you tear everything apart, plug that line, go out on the road and engage both the AC and the cruise then report back.
 
Ok. The line is plugged, plenty of vacuum at the elbow. Ac works, still no cruise. Anak, where do you see a missing fuse?


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Number 16 on your fuse block appears to be vacant.

Edit to add: I thought I might check mine and suggest a fuse value, but my fuses values appear to be substantially different from yours, and given the quality of work that I have found courtesy of previous owners I am going to need to check and see if I have a bunch of fuses that are completely wrong. It would not surprise me.

Here is a poor picture of what I have in that fuse block:

UnderDashFuses1OPT.jpg


And just for the sake of someone who may find this thread later and want clarification, here is my '96 cruise control buttons:

CruiseControlButtonsOPT.jpg
 
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My 90 XJ had a cable running from the servo to the throttle body. My plastic tip broke and the cable came off the throttle body. I fixed the cable, cruise was back in action. Check the cable coming from the servo over the valve cover (then, see if you have vacuum AT the servo) to see if it's moving/working/attached/adjusted(?).

3 things run it...electricity/vacuum/cable
 
Ok. Thanks a lot guys for all the feed back helping me out here. I did a google search on fuse number 16, and it's supposably for power seats and tow. I'll throw a fuse in there and see if the cruise comes to life first before anything else. The servo cable running to the throttle body is intact, not frayed, connected but, has a little bit of slack in the cable. It's more slack than the throttle cable has. I haven't checked vacuum at that small line going into he servo yet. I will when I get home from work. I have also seen a 3 pin connector going to the servo. Is there supposed to be voltage at one of those pins when the cruise control is powered on? I'm also going to take the column cover off and see if I have any broken wires in there, and possibly pulling the face of the wheel off to check , and do a resistance check on the switches.
 
Ok. I replaced the fuse, no go. Plenty of vacuum at the servo. I disconnected the electrical plug on the servo and had my wife push the on/off switch on the wheel. I have 12v on the blue/red wire when cruise is "on" and goes out when the switch is depressed. So I know it's not a power issue to the servo. I'm going to pull the servo apart. I saw a vid on YouTube how to do it. Looks simple.


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I had the little"Jesus" clip fail on my 96......it connects the servo to the cable.There is slack in the cruise cable until the servo pulls in.
 
you need to have a vacuum tank for the cruise to work properly. once your start accelerating your vacuum will cut to 0 and the cruise will let go. and your hvac will switch to defrost. you may be able to find a universal one at an autopart store.
 
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