Hello! I recently purchased a 2003 Econoline E350 super duty. Low miles (low to me) 120k. I don't know a whole lot about these vehicles but for some reason I can't seem to figure out why cruise Control will not function, I have a decently long road trip coming up and I will take any suggestions as to what I can do it make Cruise functional. I checked a few fuses and they are all good, there does not seem to be any switch on the brake pedal and the cable from what I can see is just fine. Thanks for your consideration into my problem.

 

Check for a switch that is screwed into the master cylinder for the brakes. This is a interlock for the cruise and was the source of a recall by Ford since it had a tendency to catch fire. The were so overwhelmed by this recall they recommended to people to unplug this switch till they got caught up and could replace it. Maybe someone unplugged your switch, never got it fixed, and it's still laying there unplugged. If it is, get a new switch installed and plug it back in and it should work.

 

i took a quick glance and seen a few plugs and they were all plugged in as intended. From what i could tell

 

Youre talking about this brown plug right? Its snug

 

Yes. You could do an experiment. You could unplug that brown plug, and make a short jumper to jump across the plug, and then see if the cruise works. If it does, the switch is bad.

 

when you say jump across the plug, im assuming theres 2 leads inside the brown plug and i just jump those and let it hang? Also would it be a bad idea to keep it like this for a 6 hour trip?

 

I personally would not have a problem with doing that on my vehicle. It's just a redundant switch in case the mechanical switch on the brake pedal arm fails. It's up to you. It may or may not be the problem, but it is a known common failure point for this system.

 

I jumped the two leads and it still doesn't seem to be working. Any other ideas? The button lights on my wheel are lit up.

 

I would also like to mention, my overdrive button also does not work. I feel like this is related.

 

There is a diagnostic procedure to determine WHY the system isn't engaging. I MIGHT be a failed brake lamp, a blown fuse, could be the steering wheel switches, could be the clockspring, could be the wiring between the clockspring and VSC servo OR it could also be the VSC servo itself.

Does that help?

Without a schematic you're kinda chasing your tail. 2003 EVTM

 

corp ..
Does Your van have a electric fly by wire throttle ??
If it does it could be a bad throttle position sensor ..
My 2000 F-250 had a sensor go bad and the cruise control
quit working .. Good Luck Steve ..

 

His van will have the cable-pulled throttle body so there is a servo for VSC installed.

As you can see this OP hasn't returned to this thread. If he's found the problem or simply given up we don't know.