Cruise control question

[James Morse]

I put in new buttons for the cruise. It's working as far as controlling the speed of the truck, it works pretty nice.
I read the book how it works.
What I don't get is this: if the cruise is "ON" (left button) how do you know it's on? There's no light on my dash for saying it's on but not activated.
When it's activated I see "SPEED CONT" light on the dash that's operating correctly.
Am I missing a light that says it's on or is this normal?
Does pressing SET turn it on by default?
This weird thing doesn't stop me from using it, set, coast, resume, off, goes off w/brake, all that works.

 

[fastpakr]

That's normal. Always struck me as an odd way to design it, but yeah - that's the way it's supposed to work.

 

[James Morse]

Because in the book they say, if you're not using it, it's better to turn OFF so it doesn't get accidentally activated. But let's say you used it, you brake, the light goes off, it's de-activated, but still ON. How do you know it's on? All you could do to fulfill what they are saying is stab OFF and assume it's now off. I guess you could test it by hitting resume and see if anything happens. If it's OFF hitting resume should have no effect.

I think some of them had lights in the buttons? I'm kind of thinking mine don't.

Kind of cool to have it working, I got the parts almost a year ago when I got the truck and just never put them in. Besides, those torn-up buttons are ugly as sin.

Edit: I thought about it, and I see where they ran into the problem. If you have a light on the dash that says "on" (but it's not active) - which is technically its status is "on" - they probably had 100% of people telling them "it says it's on, but it's not working". I couldn't think of a good way to do it. For the buttons, though, you could have whatever is the status brighter that would be good for night. Anyway, it works. I imagine after I use it a few times it'll become inconsequential.

 

[James Morse]

I thought more about this and about all you could do is have a light that says "Cruz Stndby" or something to tell you it's on, but not activated. Otherwise the way you work it is if it won't SET, hit ON, and if you're worried about accidentally setting it (I'm not), hit OFF. It goes OFF when you turn off the truck anyways. In the end I guess they opted for no light for ON because it is still a bit confusing maybe. So you get just the one light, it's either working, or it's not, and whether it's on or not, you just have to know since you are the one driving it.

On mine, when I got the parts, I had one heck of a time getting the wiring off the buttons because normally you don't need to replace the wiring in the steering wheel and if you did you'd have to take apart the steering wheel more. So I called the supplier and they were like, ok we'll refund. Finally I did get the wiring off the buttons so I ended up with them for free. I feared the same problem taking the OEM wiring off the old buttons, but, they came off quite easily. I sprayed first with CRC elec cleaner, don't know if that made any difference at all, but couldn't hurt to clean contacts.

Both sides the wiring seated to the new buttons with a very satisfying and positive "click". Sure looks better too.