Oh yes they did!
I remember well, a friend installed one of these kits to his Datsun pickup. The control was clamped on to his turn signal lever.
adaptive cruise control woes
- Thread starter bobski
- Start date
Oh yes they did!
I remember well, a friend installed one of these kits to his Datsun pickup. The control was clamped on to his turn signal lever.
Sure did! I have installed many- Audiovox, Rostra, Dana and others. I used to be a Store Manager for Pep Boys back in the day.
Most of them used a cable attached to the carburetor alongside the throttle cable, and a vacuum or electric servo pulled the cable to maintain speed. Speed was picked up by a Hall effect sensor and a magnet on the driveshaft. There was a control that was either dash mounted or clamped onto or under the turn signal stalk. And a disconnect switch that went on the brake pedal.
They were crude by todays standards, but they worked!
GasGuzzler
Hawkeye
Yes and they were mechanical or electro-mechanical. Those are the types that will run away from you. Nothing OEM in the last 40 years will.
I use cruise control every time I am on the highway. It helps keep me from going too fast. I typically set it for 10 over the posted limit, or about 80 mph on the Interstate, and use the "+" or "-" buttons to adjust the speed up or down in 1 mph increments as needed instead of using the brake and accelerator pedals. My cruise control is not the "smart" kind so I have to stay alert or it would just run me into a vehicle going slower in front of me. I really like the cruise control on my newer Mini Cooper. The buttons that increase or decrease speed by 1 mph will do 5 mph if you press the button fully rather than just tapping the button. I can ride for an hour to my daughter's home with hardly ever touching the gas or brake pedal or the clutch pedal as well, keeping it in 6th gear the whole way.
Cruise control wasn’t available for my Ford or Jeep when I bought them. I installed aftermarket units on both. Essentially dumb, all they do is adjust throttle linkage to hold a preset speed.
In reality they didn’t even monitor the speed. There were magnetic pickups to count the driveshaft rotations. These were fine for flat highway conditions. But hit a hill and when the transmission kicked down, you slowed. Like I said dumb units.
Oh, the positioner was vacuum driven so a leak or sudden hard acceleration caus d the vacuum motor to loose effectiveness.
Still on long drives, especially in the Jeep, it reduced driver fatigue.
In reality they didn’t even monitor the speed. There were magnetic pickups to count the driveshaft rotations. These were fine for flat highway conditions. But hit a hill and when the transmission kicked down, you slowed. Like I said dumb units.
Oh, the positioner was vacuum driven so a leak or sudden hard acceleration caus d the vacuum motor to loose effectiveness.
Still on long drives, especially in the Jeep, it reduced driver fatigue.
Ka6otm
Blackhawk
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2002
- Messages
- 753
Speaking as an Electronic Engineer, I wouldn't bet on that.
GasGuzzler
Hawkeye
Hmmm... I have been a technician for 23 years and in the industry for 30 helping fix what the engineers did wrong. I have driven over 3 million miles before the age of 50 and have worked on around 15K different vehicles and have never once seen or heard from a reliable source of a modern OEM cruise control running away with a vehicle. Possible? Yes. Has it happened? Probably. Is it one out of a trillion. I'd bet.
