Adding cruise?

Anyone done it to a carbureted first gen?

How standalone is it or is a convoluted mess?

As far as I know it's very self contained. My '85 Bronco II had it, and I retained it post duraspark. Unfortunately it's been 12ish years since I sold that truck so the details are murky. Definitely not integrated with much else.

3rd party would be easiest

And even factory are self contained, only real tie in to trucks system is brake lights and clutch switch.
Factory steering column harness.

Cruise has 4 parts
1. Speed sensor, 1985 won't have a VSS, electronic speed sensor, so you need to add one, which is easier than it sounds.
A speed sensor just makes pulses when truck is moving, so most after market cruise setups just have you put 2 or 4 magnets on the drive shaft and mount sensor near them, so when drive shaft turns sensor generates a pulse for each magnet passing by it.
2. Actuator/servo, this is what actually pulls on the throttle linkage, it is connected to the engines vacuum for pulling power but can be all electric.
This is mounted in the engine bay and it's cable is connected to throttle linkage, carb or fuel injected doesn't matter.
3. The amplifier/brains, this can be inside the servo or be a separate unit, it "counts the pulses" from the sensor and adjusts servo, when engaged, to maintain the drivers chosen pulse count
4. The controller, located in the cab, often on steering wheel(clockspring change) or turn signal stalk for 3rd party, can be dash mounted as well on some.
This turns cruise on/off and also sets speed.
There will also be a tie in to Brake pedal switch, for shut off, and clutch pedal switch as well if manual trans.

No cruise control knows what "speed" is, it just see pulses from a speed sensor.
If driver hits "set" button when there are 100 pulses a minute then Amplifier will pull throttle open using the servo until it sees 101 pulses a minute then close it a bit for 100, if it goes to 99 then it pulls it a bit more, if it goes to 101 it close it a bit, and so on, that could be 40MPH or 80MPH, cruise has no idea nor does it matter, all it knows are pulse counts.
If driver hits "increase" it changes pulse count in memory to 101, Decrease goes to 99, very very simple setup
Coast turns servo off, Resume brings it back to 100, last pulse count in memory
If brake lights or clutch pedal are used then it turns off servo


The older vehicle Ford cruise controls, pre-VSS, would have the transmission speedometer cable run to the servo in the engine bay, and then a second shorter speedo cable run from servo to speedometer.
So servo was where pulses were generated.
You might be able to cobble together a factory system but most of these parts are long gone and may not work well even if you found them.

Mine has a connector/some sort of sensor where the speedo cable comes out of the t-case. I have never traced it to see where the wires go but something plugs in there. I always thought it would be for cruise.

First gen has the contact switches that run on the back of the steering wheel for that style. The cruise set just has more rings and more contacts. Earlier ones had the cruise controls in the turn signal stalk. (I don't know which style is "correct" for an '85)

I have an Edelbrock carb, I remember when I got it they offered a kit of some sort for cruise, I will have to check back into that.

I do want to keep it looking factory (as far as switches go)

That sounds like a combo cable/VSS as seen here: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/speedometer.shtml

But haven't seen that on an 1985 before, and it would be for cruise and computer, although I also didn't think Carb computer used VSS input for anything, but 4WD module might, 0MPH for shift into 4Low

85_Ranger4x4 said:

Mine has a connector/some sort of sensor where the speedo cable comes out of the t-case. I have never traced it to see where the wires go but something plugs in there. I always thought it would be for cruise.

First gen has the contact switches that run on the back of the steering wheel for that style. The cruise set just has more rings and more contacts. Earlier ones had the cruise controls in the turn signal stalk. (I don't know which style is "correct" for an '85)

I have an Edelbrock carb, I remember when I got it they offered a kit of some sort for cruise, I will have to check back into that.

I do what to keep it looking factory (as far as switches go)

Click to expand...

My '84 definitely had the cruise buttons on the steering wheel. The turn signal stalk doubled as the horn button.

RonD said:

That sounds like a combo cable/VSS as seen here: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/speedometer.shtml

But haven't seen that on an 1985 before, and it would be for cruise and computer, although I also didn't think Carb computer used VSS input for anything, but 4WD module might, 0MPH for shift into 4Low

Click to expand...

Who knows, the guy that had the truck before me was an odd guy, maybe he deleted the cruise.

fastpakr said:

My '84 definitely had the cruise buttons on the steering wheel. The turn signal stalk doubled as the horn button.

Click to expand...

I have seen that too, a month ago at the JY I noticed one with all the cruise stuff on there too though. I didn't look to see what year it was.

I got out my EVTM last night, Ford uses a vacuum servo on the LH fender to run the electric servo on the carb. For an extra safety there is a vacuum dump valve tied into the brake pedal.

I would think finding a vacuum servo unit would be the hardest part.

As said, the system is pretty well self-contained. And all the wiring for it is pretty much in the dash harness too. You would just need to get a module, amp, column/wheel, dump valve, servo, and VSS unit.

I actually have most of the parts from my body-donor that I will not be using.

Is the column different too? I figured it would just be a different switch for the wheel.

Agreed on the vacuum servo...

Since I have a harness going down to the speedo I wonder if I have the module already.

Edit, I see O'Reilly's has reman servos for $100 if all else fails.

Nabbed the whole system from a BII yesterday.

It was a 5 speed, I robbed the vacuum dump valve from the brake pedal assembly. I got home and I was going to go ahead and put the little valve in mine (which is an automatic) before I lost it... and I have nowhere to put it. Anyone know if there is a extra bracket to hold that?

Here is the pedal assy from an 87 with auto and cruise. The dump valve sits in it's own little bracket that is held by two 10mm nuts on the top side.

FWIW this is a spare part from my current build, as the body donor was auto and the final product won't have cruise. I am very willing to part with any or all of it if you catch my drift.

A picture truely is worth a thousand words, thanks.

Hang on it to it for a bit, the thing is if I find one in a JY for no bigger than it is I doubt they will charge anything for it...

And I have a manual pedal assembly in the barn, I wonder if it has one too (probably different if it does)

And it had it, I thought it was out of an older BII and probably didn't have cruise, it must have (I didn't pull it, guy threw it in with my D35 to get rid of it) Of course the petrified white plastic bumper broke off when I tried to remove it.



And for those of the second gen persuasion everything is different:



Also, my '85 only has two wires going to the VSS and the '88 has three... so I need that pigtail and VSS too. The end of my harness was tucked up between the inner fender and outer fender. Just a plain horn relay under the dash so basically there is nothing already there.