Hey guys.. We have a 01 F250 4wd with the 7.3L Diesel. We're having a problem with the cruise control not working. Pushing the buttons do nothing.. The green "cruise" light doesn't come on at all. Also the horn button in the steering wheel stopped working..

I swear I read something about this being an issue and they are linked together, but I've been searching for 30 minutes now without any sucess.

I know the horn itself is good becase we can get it to make sounds.. It'll make sounds if we push the panic button or push the door lock button twice on the keychain thing.

We tried replacing fuses but it didn't help..

Thanks for the help!

 

I had a similar issue in my 96 Windstar. Took the buttons out of the steering wheel, used a pencil eraser to clean the contacts and it worked like a charm...cruise control was my only issue.

 

Try searching for "clockspring"

 

Clockspring explains it all..

I wonder why it never came up in my searches.. weird.

To save time for other people.. Here is a link to the PDF that shows how to replace it.

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/hootbro/Clockspring.pdf

Looks to be a $75 part at the local O'rileys store.. Not sure how much it is at the dealer.

 

yep same issues and same solution for me on the 01 a few months back.

Its not a hard replacement with the right Wheel puller....good luck

 

It doesn't look to hard.. I have noticed the horn hasn't worked in a while, but just now noticed the cruise control didn't work either. We just did a 500 mile round trip from our house to Vegas and back.. The wife's foot was getting tired a lot..

 

Here's a couple of more links if you'd rather see pictures than the diagrams. You're right, it's not difficult, but don't take the danger of that air bag lightly.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...&albumid=37403
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...l-removal.html

 

I got the same problem and ordered a clockspring today. Mine blows the horn fuse, cruise does not work. Hopefully this will solve it. I will be watching this post.

 

Before spending money and time on the clockspring, read this post:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...no-shorts.html

I had problems with search yielding no help, then started using advanced search, use as few words as possible, and limit it to the most likely forum. I finally got good help from the brilliant guys on the electrical forum.
Hope it helps.

 

What did you eventually come up with?? I got to my horn and hooked it up to a battery and it worked fine. I am not electrical savvy and as such do not know how to get ohms/resistance/etc. I have all the instructions from alldatapro.com on how to do this but am not sure of settings on my electrical tester thing and how to read the numbers it spits out. At work now will digest this post more when I get home tonight....Thanks

 

SpectreZ91, If both of your horns work OK, it probably isn't your problem. You didn't say if your fuse is blowing or not, but if the horns sound with the key fob then the fuse should be good (barring a previous owner having bypassed the fuse). One of the guys from the electrical forum sent me a wiring diagram of that system. PM me if you want further guidance, I'd be happy to email you the diagram, or whatever I can do to help.

nghtrgr One of my horns had developed a short. As for reading a multimeter (electrical tester thing) it kinda takes some basic understanding of electrical theory. Feel free to PM me, and I'll try to walk you through it (you can do it).

 

Here is a little more info after reading through these posts a little more. My horn does not work with the horn button. It also does not work when I use keyless entry. It works for a split second after replacing fuse and pushing horn button then craps out as the fuse burns out. Recently did studs, some deleting, etc cruise worked for a short time after these mods, horn I cannot remember about...I just hope I didn't jack anything up when I was putting stuff back together.

senix, your little eraser trick is an old RTO (radio telephone operator) trick used on military radio handmikes, I will investigate this when I go in for the clockspring.

bunklash, multimeter was on the tip of my fingers when I was typing that post but I couldn't get it out lol did your old horn in question from the other thread work?? I hooked my horn directly to a battery with jumper wires and it worked fine...could there still be a short in it that is causing the fuse to blow??

SpectreZ91 thanks for letting me piggyback on your thread

Thanks to all the help...FTE Rocks

 

Pressing the horn button completes the ground for the horn, so it's pretty hard to cause a short to ground without the horn sounding when the button isn't pressed. (confused, forget that part). Here's what I did differently than you. On the advise of franklin2 on the electrical forum, I used an older battery charger to test the horns. That way, I got to see what kind of amperage they were drawing while testing them. They shouldn't draw much more than 5-10 amps. My bad horn didn't blow very loudly at all (more like a sick grunting) and it pegged out the ammmeter. Your's may blow ok, but be pulling too many amps. Another test would be to simply unplug the wires at the horns, put in a fresh fuse and hit the horn button. If it doesn't blow the fuse then, bingo, you know it's the horn(s). If it still blows the fuse, you have a short to ground somewhere in the wiring between the fuse and the horn. One more check you can make is to unplug the horns, then read from the ends of the wires to ground. You should get a direct short (no resistance) from one of them, but not the other. A direct short (zero resistance) is indicated by a pegged needle on your multimeter when you touch both the multimeter leads together. Be ure your meter is set at it's lowest Resistance setting (Rx1).
Just in case you're not confused enough, here's a link to the wiring diagram:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...3&d=1201131590

Again, feel free to PM me, and Ill give you my phone #. I'm sure much is lost through trying to write back and forth. It'd be no problem for me at all, I'm home for spring break all this week.

 

In a PM, nghtrgr wrote:

I actually did this (unplugged the horns) and it didn't blow the fuse, how does this tie into my cruise issue though, looking at this diagram https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...3&d=1201131590
I see the speed control/horn switch is common, which appears to tie into what looks like the clock spring, common, (the 2 similar drawings with ABCDE between them) and the horn relay (internal to PDJB, where is this located, I know where the main fuse box is) not common.

In my eyes it could be the speed control/horn switch, the clockspring, or the horn. Is it possible that by the horn having some sort of short is somehow causing the cruise to fail??
Something else I forgot to mention is that when I had the horn off and pushed the horn button I could hear a clicking from the steering column area.


Then Bunkllash wrote:

The horn ties into your cruise because they both get their power from the same fuse. If you replace the fuse and don't blow your horn (or leave your horn disconnected at the horn) I bet your cruise will work. If it does work, it's 99% certain you have a horn shorting internally and blowing the fuse. The other .
1% chance is that the wire to the horn is touching ground somewhere, but only when hooked to the horn (like hitting the metal horn body right at the terminal).
The reason it most likely isn't the horn/cruise switches or the clockspring is that fuses only occasionally blow without being shorted to ground. Since these switches work by completing the ground for the components, it'd be like the offending switch was closed all the time (and keeping the horn sounding constantly).
The clicking sound you heard is the horn relay closing (but NOT blowing the fuse). As the diagram says, the relay is an integral part (can't be changed) of the PDJB (Power Distribution Junction Box) or as anybody else would call it, the fuse box!!!

 

Put in new fuse (horn connected, but not activated) cruise did not work, fuse was good. When I get a chance I will try this with the horn disconnected, along with a little more diagnosis. Right now I am not counting out the horn, but am leaning toward the cruise buttons and/or clockspring. Although it may be the horn relay, just have to figure out where it is. Will keep posted.