Cruise control

[Guest joereatta]

My cruise control will not engage on my '90. The "cruise" dash board light goes on but nothing happens otherwise. Suggestions for troubleshooting? It worked fine the last time I ran the car and have had no service since. Suggestions to where to start looking? I do have a FS manual but not with me.

[Guest F14CRAZY]

I'd say check all the related vacuum lines and fittings

[jonlabree]

Also the vacum switch under the dash.

[Guest wally888]

Your solution? probably not but:

The switch on the steering wheel has very small, almost hairlike, wires. They enter and are soldered at the end nearest the wheel.

Each time you use the switch they flex (I have seen some broken, I have seen some very corroded=green at the solder joints.

I had one w/ a broken wire but could use Cruise by turning on then hitting Resume=the only way it would work. Another was very corroded + wires were broken.

You can somewhat disassemble the switch, look inside but can not access the solder joints, at least I couldn't.

Replacing the switch is a [censored]! Remove steering wheel, feeding wires thru column.............

BTW: I replaced the one w/ broken wires w/ a used one. Little did I know the new/used one also had one broken wire (now works only by using Resume)! Maybe a used one could be bench tested before.........

[Guest tomt]

Because I had heard the horror stories about replacing the switch, I delayed replacing mine with the one I had bought from Jim Finn. One guy said the steering wheel would have to be removed and quoted $90.00.

I recently had the mechanic who had worked on mine all along replace the switch, and he did so for $30.00 now that the Buick dealership where he worked is closed. I mentioned this to Jim at Lansing, and he said that the wheel doesn't have to come off, and most likely for that price it didn't. The cruise works fine now with the replaced switch.

[Guest jcc3inc]

Sir,

Just wanted to mention that two places where you can have a vacuum leak are the

hose just where it goes into the diaphragm chamber (mine, '91, has a right angle

bend there) and the hose end had enlarged so that it leaked; and the other place

is at the brake pivot inside the cab. There the vacuum can be released when you

step on the brake.

Regards,

Jack C.

[manikmekanik]

When you find the root of your problem, send me a PM, I have a spare steering column, and all the related cruise control parts, here at the farm.

[Guest joereatta]

Finally got around to popping the hood. There was an arm that was disconected from the servo plunger. The arm that the lever attached to had a series of holes. I just picked one and now the cruise control seems to function. Need to find a clip or keeper to hold the arm onto the lever so that it does not pop off again. Thanks to all for suggestions and offers of help. joe

[88blue90black]

did you check the silonoids in the cruis control servo. My 91 lesabre had the same problem. The coils didn't create a strong enough feild to close the valves. If the silonoids don't click. you'll need a new servo. If the do. I would look for a leak from the ports on the servo. I would also check the bladder that the throtle cable is hooked up to.