Cruise light on, doesnt work/no backup lights or parking

[computersoc]

2001 Ranger XLT RWD 2.5L engine with manual 5 speed transmission. 220k miles. All dash lights are normal except what I'm about to describe:

1. Cruise control light on dash will turn on when I turn it on but it won't hold the speed anymore.

2. Parking brake light on dash only illuminates about 20 percent of the time when the parking brake is engaged.

3. Reverse lights only work 75 percent of the time. I had something replaced that screws into the transmission but that didnt help.

 

[fastpakr]

Have you inspected the cable from the cruise control servo to the throttle body?

Does the parking brake physically work properly?

 

[computersoc]

No to the 1st question. What is the location? yes to the 2nd.

 

[fastpakr]

Assuming it's like my 99, the servo is on the passenger side just forward of the HVAC fan and evaporator housing. There will be a throttle cable going from there to join the main throttle cable at the throttle body.

 

[RangerJoey]

I thought with these guys, the cruise control not working is a safety feature linked to the brake light. I've heard a good amount of stories with older cars that had failing cruise control and it just turned out to be that 3rd brake light being out, (CC is designed to disengage when the brake is touched and with the bulb out, there's nothing telling CC everything's ok). Can you verify that cabin brake light is fully functional? Parking brake has got me but I'm wondering if this business with the CC is all in the same ballpark.
Also, you didn't have a jump recently by chance? I noticed my tach plays funny/doesn't react every now and then if I did a jump from one of those little battery packs. A disconnect and full drain on the capacitors seems to fix that right up.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I don't believe you'll find one fault that fixes all three issues... those are separate systems and they aren't dependent on one another to work properly.

Items 2 and 3 are intermittent... a lot of times you will find a poor connection causing those faults.