My cruise stopped working.

Is there a way to perform a self test on this old van?
Can the problem with the cruise be because the ABS brakes are out of order?

And, is there a test for the ABS brake system and sensors?

Problems that might have a connection:
At highway speeds, when the accelerator pedal is just maintaining the speed. The engine sounds like it's misfiring or shuddering.
When I floor it or just normally increase speed, it's fine.

I will call the dealership and ask about the recall on the cruise tomorrow.
My older 94 model van was recalled 2 years ago for the cruise.

 

Does the speedometer work normally, no fluctuation?

 

I have seen some fluctuations once in a while.

Got 3 ABS sensors, and on the left front, the wires are broken off. I recieved a new left side sensor in the mail this morning, and I'll replace it on friday.

I will take out the rear sensor tomorrow and clean it. The ring gear inside the rear axle is in good condition, checked that 14 days ago when I changed gear oil.

 

The pickups only have rear ABS, so the sensor in the diff drives the ABS, the speedometer, the cruise and the programming for AT shifting. TBH I don't know if the front sensors on the vans are for anything beyond ABS. I would think the sensor in the pumpkin would still be the critical one. Unfortunately we don't get a lot of van folks here.

 

Rear ABS sensor was cleaned today, a lot dirt on it.
No difference in shuddering/misfiring, cruise still not working.

Only difference is that auto trans shifts easier, and now it stays in 3rd for a while before shifting to 4th. Before it had some hard shifts and when shifting to 3rd it goes almost directly to 4th.

 

The speedometer still has some fluctuations after cleaning the rear ABS sensor.

Ford dealership called me back on friday and confirmed that my cruise wiring is going to be replaced on a recall. I got an appointment on june 12th.

 

Then your cruise still won't work. Poss. wiring problem, or the tone ring (the reluctor that the VSS "senses") is dirty or damaged, or I've even heard of contaminated diff fluid causing this.

 

The tone ring is clean and undamaged, as it was checked a few weeks ago when I changed rear axle oil.
So the fluid is clean and I used an limited slip type gear oil.
Fuses are checked.
Only thing left must be wiring problems then? Maybe I should wait until the factory recall wires have been changed, as the problem may be linked to that.

 

Does your van have a 3rd brake light? On the "F" series trucks a lot of times if there is a burned out bulb in the 3rd brake light the cruise won't work. For some reason the PCM sees a burned out brake bulb as a brake application and cancels the cruise control. Also if the is any damage in the brake/signal wiring harness for a trailer it will cause the same problem. If the problem is a leak in the brake pressure switch on the master cylinder you can just unplug the connector from the switch and place a jumper in the plug.

 

The recall fix might be a factor, but it won't fix a wavering speedometer, and that will still make the cruise not work. So you may have two issues in play. As for the speedo, one last possibility is the speedo head / cluster itself. Any chance you can swap in a cluster from another diesel van?

 

3rd brake light and the other 2 are working fine. Tok out the bulbs and cleaned the sockets and lenses on all the lights on the van.
(Wife wasn't happy when I used the dishwasher to clean the lenses, but they do shine like new now )

Trailer wiring is a strange connection, the original factory wire is not in use. It's just curled up and taped to the frame rail.
Wires are connected directly to the left rear light.
Maybe that's where the problem is? Best to disconnect it and try the cruise again, I think.
Later on I can wire it to the original trailer wires (as I don't need a trailer for the moment).

If I still have a problem, I can try a jumper.

Another cluster isn't to hard to get hold of, a lot of van's around here at the breakers. but I will try everything above first, then have the recall wire changed before I go looking for a replacement cluster.
The wavering speedo is not a problem in it self, if it's only caused by a worn out cluster.

The van's got 227806 miles on it.

 

The speedo head of the cluster is electronic, except for the needle itself; not much to "wear" really. If it's wavering because of an electronic problem, it will disable the cruise.

 

Recall fix was done on tuesday. Still no cruise after that.

The Ford dealership also checked for engine, gearbox and ABS codes, and found nothing.
But they found that the battery positive connector, on the righthand side battery had split. They thought that this might be the source for the engine to sputter at 60-80 km/h (40-50 mph).
At test driving with instruments hooked up, they found a slight voltage drop in the ignition system, causing the sputter/misfire. (1-2 volts drop).

 

Changed the left side front ABS sensor, and now the speedo fluctuations are gone.
Used a multimeter and checked the resistance of both.
The new one reads 2.64 K ohms and the old one, 10.50 M ohms and rising.
The old one looked as if it was in perfect condition, but it was definitely dead.

With the help of my 6 year old son (stepping on the brakes), I noticed that there were two lightbulbs in the rear roof brakelight. One was out, replaced them both with LED bulbs , and now i also have the cruisectrl back in order.

Before I only checked the brakelights by backing up against a wall and saw the lights shining on the wall.

Only thing left now is the engine sputter, it's better than before after I fixed the battery connector.

 

Good you have it fixed. FYI led lights have caused some issues also, I don't know about the third brake light but in regular taillights, so if you notice any other problems put regular bulbs in there.