some advice please.
I have a 80 n/a and my ascd is driving me nuts! about 95% of the time it works fine, but the 5% it does not, it has 4 of the 5 conditions in the FSM.

The common "cause" in each one seem to be the meter cable or the controller.

The cable does have some troubleshooting options, but the control can not be tested by itself.

From what I can tell, the cable "looks" fine to me. I did not try to readjust it, I don't have a way to make user the clearance is correct.

being the pessimist I am, i have been trying to find the cable and controller, (for pricing info) but I'm not having any luck. Im not able to find them listed anywhere, it may be that i'm looking in the incorrect areas

 

What is it doing or not doing when it "doesn't work" ?

Is the ON still lighting up?
Does the cruise control just shut off?
Can you turn it back on?

Ya know... be specific about what the problem is.

 

yes and no. when it turns it self off, it will speed up like I hit the gas, might jump 5 mph, no a lot, then the light goes off. but that is the only time the light goes off. the other times the light stay on.

sometimes (see above). Mostly it just speeds up, or slows down about 5 mph before setting, but it also pulse when it is set.

most of the time. It seems if I wait a few minutes it will work, but if I try to turn it on as soon as it turns off, it will not work.

 

Have you already changed all the vaccum lines and made sure all the electrical connections in that part of the system are good?

 

Yea. I did not find anything out of sorts, but only did a visual inspection of the vacuum lines. Not sure how else to check them .

 

The 79-81 cruise is uberbasic, so only a handful of things can be wrong:
-Vacuum leak
-Kinked / damaged / dry speedo cable
-Faulty ASCD switch, control unit, set button, or throttle cable controller / actuator.

The FSM details how to test each of them.

 

They are cheap and easy to replace so I usually just shot gun them all. You can pull each one off and cut a 1/2 inch off and plug it back on. It's typically the connection where it expands, gets hard and leaks. Cut that portion off and you're good to go with 30 year old vaccum line

 

suck on them or just replace. the stuff is cheap why try to save a couple bucks using rotted out lines. even cheap in loonies. while you are at it might replace all the lines for the climate system and any thing else you can find.

 

I failed the 2% rule when I reading the fsm, I did not think the speedo cable played a part in the acsd. I thought it was all the tach.

I do have issues with a jumping speedo, and have not had the time to pull the cluster to take a look at the pig tail. the long cable is fine, and re greased.