Adding cruise control on a B model

[Hobert62]

Stay south!    It's cold up here. 

[Freightrain]

Yup, got off the plane and it was blowing snow!!  Ugh.  But nice to be home and be able to talk to people!!

I got some time on the cruise today.  I got the wiring all finished up.  It functions properly.  I got the bracket finished for the cable mount on the air compressor.  The cable housing is cut to length and just need to get the pump arm back on and cut the cable to fit.  Pretty happy with how it all turned out.  Can't wait for next spring to try it out.   We got blasted with snow and the roads are a mess.  I'm not taking the truck out til spring now.

[Freightrain]

Well i got it finished up and working.  Made up my little bracket for cable and slip bushing for throttle.  Got it adjusted and works fine.

One note:  make sure your batteries are up.  Wow...i spent a few hours chasing my tail til I realized the batteries are down a bit and apparently it keeps track of input voltage and will shut off if under 12? volt, or whatever.  It started messing with me and I couldnt figure it out.  Hooked up battery charger and it works flawless.  Go figure.

Picture shows WOT.

[j hancock]

Hmmmm.... a demonstration of WOT.  Damn kids!

[Freightrain]

I was trying to download pics from my phone and it was giving me grief and that was the only one that made it.

I can't wait to try it out on the road.  I tested the brakes and it disengages it properly.  They make a comment about LED bulbs and it not working correctly and you might have to install a std bulb in the system to get it to react.  Since I have four LED taillights I guess it must be okay.  I need to clip the excess cable off and make sure it doesn't get caught up in anything.

It was really pissing me off last night when it kept shutting down and then wouldn't activate.  Then it would sorta then kick off randomly, etc.  It has a checklist for when stuff doesn't work but I couldn't figure out why suddenly I would have lost a ground?  Ugh, that is when I looked at the voltmeter and saw it was going down below 12v.   That is when it all clicked and I hooked up the battery charger and it worked flawless.  Jeez o pete.

The little bushing I made mimics the little sheetmetal tab that was on there for the hand throttle.  I just made this out of a piece of 3/8" square stock.  Milled a 1/4" hole and installed a nylon bushing(from home depot) for the cable to slide through.  They give you an alum arm with bushing in it to use, but it won't work with my throttle linkage.  All the pictures they give you with the instructions is all late model stuff.  Go figure.

I was also concerned originally about the release of the cable when you turn it off.  It snaps off, like it has a locking paw that releases.  Then you hear the servo motor run for 3-5 seconds, I guess to get it back to its starting point.

Edited December 21, 2016 by Freightrain

[Freightrain]

Well, it works.   I left the aux in neutral and set the Mack boxes in 5th OD and ran it up to 60 mph and calibrated it.  I then was able to set it and accel/decal it, cancel and resume it.  Works really well.  Time will tell next spring when I can get it out on the road but I think it will do just fine.

The issue with running two things off the single sending unit, seems like a moot point.  The speedo held the same speed no matter what I did with the cruise.  It didn't flicker to change drastically.  I'm pretty excited.