Cruise works like a champ! Anyone can do this mod. Thanks for the help! While I was under there, I went ahead and did the 15.6k mod. Not sure how much it helps, but it still runs good. Guess I'll leave it on. Tomorrow the dump is getting the 6637!

 

Nice! One of the nice things about these trucks is setting the CC while pulling a trailer and never wondering about your speed...

 

i have a question related to adding cruise to my 1996 econoline... i have one thing that doesn't add-up. seems my 1996 e-350 has an airbag... or at least the steering wheel is an airbag type (4-spoke, rectangular center, horn buttons on the top two spokes) looks almost like the units Ford was installing in the light duty (non-diesel, maybe diesel too?) trucks...

wondering if there's a way to figure out what i really have here w/o jerking the cover off - ideas? - wondering how hard it will be to find the steering wheel (seems the buttons for this year model on the light duties were mounted along the sides of the airbag cover - or are these wings that can be added?) was so excited about doing this mod, almost ordered the pad, then realized the reason that triangle shaped pad looked so familiar is that it's what i have on my '97 F-350 that already has cruise!

i'm trying to figure out if i have a later add-on steering wheel (sans airbag) or if i have an active unit here...? any of you have something like this? this is a former police (swat team) van that has the quigley 4wd mod, so maybe the police force added a driver airbag... or swapped wheels... or...?

again, ideas of what i can discern w/o just jerking the pad off and praying i don't get powder dusted?

thanks!

 

The vans have a airbag

 

so then... if this is true... is this a "common part" to swap to, or am i looking at a junk yard steering wheel? or swapping an entire steering column?

this may not be as easy (or pretty) as i had hoped!

 

wellllllll...... guess i'll have to figure it out on my own... appears i'm plowing new ground here, or perhaps the one guy who knows is not talking... while i hear vans had airbags (see above) the "rule" apparently is not that simple (shock!)... from my study, most 96 e350's seem to be non-airbag (commercial?) whereas the e150's of similar vintage (consumer?) seem to have airbags...

i suppose the question now seems to be whether or not the steering wheels can be swapped e150 to e350, or if this steering wheel is from some other vehicle in the ford stable... which could get rather interesting...

in addition to this van, i have a 97 truck (F350, no airbag) that i might steal the wheel from some afternoon to see if it will work... - if so, then the question will be, airbag delete and move to a setup like the F350 i have, or...?

i guess i can update if there's anyone who is interested...

 

Well, this is the Ford Truck Enthusiasts site; not a lot of van owners here. So yeah, you're plowing new ground.

 

while i understand, and indeed do own a few "qualifying vehicles"...

it seems interesting that the sport ute's seem to have a place in said "TRUCK" forum, (including my 7.3 powerstroke motivated 4x4 '01 Excursion - which is why i initially joined this forum) but a 7.3 powerstroke mounted to a one-ton chassis - a 4WD with suspension lift no less - is considered foreign --- because it has a van body on it?

guess that makes it a mustang, huh?

 

In the off chance that anyone cares...

Have installed the cruise enabled steering wheel...

jumpered the brake switch connector (btw the wire colors on my '96 E350 are Lt Green/Red and Red/Lt Green, again FYI)...

Cruise however is not working... yet why? this was once a SWAT vehicle - when it was de-commisioned *many* things (wires) got cut... i'm guessing someone clipped the wrong wire somewhere...

so now i'll chase that... woohoo!

 

Seems to me if you jumper the brake switch, it would _dis_engage the cruise, and the brake lights would be on all the time. AFAIK, the cruise is active only when the brake switch is _open_.

 

in the off chance anyone cares about those of us who use/run/modify and love the "non-truck" psd vans, you CAN upgrade to CRUISE, relatively simply - just like the psd trucks w/ one notable exception...

you will most likely NEED to put in a correct clock spring for cruise... apparently the trucks mostly already HAVE the correct (cruise control enabled) clock spring installed by default (probably a numbers thing at Ford that it wasn't worth stocking/installing non-cruise as so many *want* cruise on their trucks), at least the later model psd trucks... it seems apparent (from my somewhat limited, research - but research into the topic non-the-less) that the cruise-enabled clock springs are NOT installed in the vans by default... i had to procure my clockspring at the dealer and viola! it worked... even though the "original" clockspring had somewhere for the cruise switches to plug in, they were "dead-ended" wires... with the new clockspring installed, everything works fine...

at long last... CRUISE!!!

 

Glad you got it fixed! Like stated before there aren't alot of van owners on here, that combined with the very few vans that got a PSD, puts you in a class almost alone. I have seen some F150's with the same air bag wheel you have, prolly would work for a van cc swap too.

Diesel Rod

 

Glad to see you figured it out. FYI there is a VAN section here 1968 - Present Full Size Vans - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

 

Ok, so to continue beating the proverbial dead horse, I'd like to add cruise to my truck and I'm reading a lot of these forums and I guess I need a button having steering wheel and the actuator thingy? Does the actuator mount in the engine compartment or under the dash?

I've seen some aftermarket kits, but if I can make a Ford solution go, that should be easiest, (and best) right? Is there anything else I need?

1995 F350 5.8L XL

Thanks in advance for the hand-holding...

 

There is no actuator in a diesel...

You have a gas truck though so it is likely you need the whole system and a computer to control it....

The diesels have no throttle cable so CC is built into the main computer irregardless of wither your truck came with it or not.

Richard