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Subject:Cruise control
From:John Rodgers
Date:Sun, 16 Apr 2017 13:25:32 -0500

Well, once more into the breech!!!!!

Seems the cruise control on both of my vans - ol' Red (88 GL) and Big Blue
(91 Carat) had petered out( no snide remarks, please - southern expression)
some time ago and it was time to try to bring it back to life in them both.
Kudo's goes to Ken Wilford at Vanagain.com for an excellent how-to video on
the subject on Youtube.

The operation was a success on the Carat, not so much on ol' Red. Still
some trouble shooting to do. A single vacuum operated switch controls the
on and off of matters on the auto tranny Carat, but on the 88 GL with
manusl tranny there are two switches, one on the clutch pedal, and one on
the brake pedal. Per Kens instructions, I removed the vacuum hose,
unplugged the electrical wire,  unscrewd by hand the vacuum switch, and
popped open the housing. All three switches were full of green corrosion
corruption. I cleaned the housings, scrubbed the metal parts with
scotchbrite for better contact. After examining the "O" Rings I decided it
would be better to install new ones, which I did, with a generous dob of
vaseline. Would have used silicon, but didn't have any. I went to the
trouble of getting the same hand Vacuum Pump Ken had (NAPA tool) and tested
the switches. All three switches worked fine. But when reinstalled, only
the Carat cruise control worked. I think the vacuum switches on ol' Red
just need readjustment of position.

Except for the latter, thats the cruise control story!

John

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