Hi, all,
This is a new shameless promotion for Rostra's universal cruise-control system. After finally having reached my wit's end with the old Audiovox CCS-100 system I had in Frankenstein for somewhere on the up of 12 years, I decided to take it out entirely and look for a replacement. I'm still not 100% sure whether I had actually done all the diagnosing that could be done to the old system, so I was careful to remove everything and box it all up. Maybe, one day, when I get the 'vert the world owes me, I might try it once again...or, I may just install another Rostra system, being that I now know how to do so, and being that Audiovox no longer produces the CCS-100 system and nobody in the world offers parts to service that system. So, this thread is a summary of things I learned along the way, some of them through Rostra's help department, installing this system into a 56-year-old Lincoln.
First, the story behind it: I decided in late September to go ahead and commit to buying an all-inclusive kit from an E-Bay seller, who had the listing up since August when I first noticed it. The listing had gone dormant for a while because the two kits they advertised as having were snatched up in about two days. However, last month, the listing became active again when they replenished their supply,
and reduced their asking price by $80, so I snatched up one for Frankenstein. The all-inclusive kit consisted of the standard 250-1223 cruise-control module with wiring harness and throttle cable, a 250-4165 signal-generator set, and a 250-3592 dash-mounted control switch that has two operating LEDs: One to signify "On," and another to signify "Engaged." I had discovered that these parts can all be had separately, either through Rostra directly or via E-Bay sellers; so one doesn't necessarily have to get a special, all-inclusive kit unless you find one at a good price. For me the kit was just more convenient...and the lowered price was irresistible.
So, installation was very time-consuming, having taken the bulk of this past month to do; but I have to admit to taking my time with this because I wanted the installation to be as clean and professional-looking as possible. For the most part, the instructions were helpful; so following them should not pose too much of a problem. Below are some tips, however, that I picked up on, either on my own or by contacting Rostra's help line. Where possible I include visual aids to make my words easier to comprehend.
1. To install the signal generator, i.e. the magnet and pick-up coil, the car needs to be overhead but still sitting on at least its drive wheels. A drive-on rack is ideal for this job, though I suppose drive-on ramps can be an alternative. Reason for this is because the coil needs to be aligned with the axis of the drive shaft as it would angle with the drive wheels on the ground. Placing the magnet on the shaft is the best way to confirm axis alignment; no matter where you place it, the magnet will mark the shaft axis if you imagine a perpendicular line through it. If you have the magnet directly facing the coil and it lines up with the coil's mounting bolt, you're aligned. Of course, you need to use an included bracket to mount the coil; I also recommend getting and mounting a secondary bracket to keep the coil better secured at its needed angle and spacing. The instructions do not give guidance on placement for a double-jointed shaft, just that the coil and magnet must be placed no further than 12" from the front U-joint. My addendum, measure that distance from the forward-most crossmember in the front DCU joint, to guarantee best placement; no minimum distance is recommended in the instructions, so you should be good there.
- 1: Coil Placement
2. The best place for the module is at the spot in the engine bay where the factory option would have been mounted, on the driver's side near the A/C compressor. The instructions stress that the module must not be any closer than 10" from the ignition coil. This is doable, though it may require the coil to be shifted in its bracket towards the distributor to attain that 10" clearance. For good measure, another 6" clearance from the voltage regulator is prudent (because I had seen that somewhere, just cannot remember where), just to ensure that no stray voltage signals from the ignition or charging system confuse the module. The bracket that comes with the module will need to be bent in a deviant U-shape for the module to mount at the best angle, with the throttle cable up top and facing rearward and the wiring harness below it. Additionally, there is a blue wire in the harness labeled for "TACH SIGNAL." Attach this wire to the "-" terminal of the ignition coil. It is not a critical need, the system can operate without it; but it is meant as a secondary insurance against loss of control, should the engine suddenly rev to an abnormal level, such as hitting the shifter by accident and kicking it out of "D" into "N." I recommend its use.
- 2: Module Placement
3. The wiring harness is long enough to route along the inside of the fender to a service hole where more car wiring passes through, through the inside of the rear of the front fender where the antenna is located (you need to remove the wheel-well shield to route the wiring through), and into the cab through another hole that accommodates the radio antenna cable and other goodies, such as the vacuum plumbing for the power locks, if your car is fitted with that option. If there are vacuum hoses in place, it will be a tight squeeze to get all the wiring through; but it is possible and actually best to go through that hole, to avoid having to drill a different access hole. This was not an issue for me as Frankenstein never had the factory power-lock option installed.
- 3a: Wiring Harness In Engine Bay
- 3b: Wiring Harness In Fender
4. For the throttle cable attachment, it took me a while to finally understand the bead-chain application; but I finally got it, after many years of trying to understand it. So, the throttle cable of the system has at least 1-5/8" of travel. The throttle linkage of your average 1966 Lincoln has only 1-1/4" travel to it. The bead chain is used to put slack into the system's throttle cable, so it can travel its full length while tugging on a shorter engine-throttle setup. To subtract the difference between the car's throttle linkage and the system's throttle cable, three beads need to be added to the end of the cable (that is, three beads hanging loose
between the end-beads used to attach the cable to the linkage; so, 5 beads altogether on the bead-chain link). The rest of the hookup is fairly easy to follow in the instructions. I used the G9 eyelet connector and the M2 6-mm tube clamp on the carburetor's linkage rod, connected together with a screw and nut, to attach the system's throttle cable. To secure the end of the cable, I used a strap bracket, bent to attach at the throttle mounting point on the intake manifold (the stock nuts and the steering-line bracket that are already there secure this strap-bracket in place). With two nuts that are meant to cut threads into the throttle cable's outer tube, I secured the cable to another tube clamp which in turn was secured by another screw and nut to the strap bracket. Aligning the cable to the linkage rod so that they are parallel is not a hard job from that point.
EDIT: Where you mount the pull connector on the throttle link will have an effect on how far in or out the end of the system's throttle cable will be adjusted when it's mounted; so mount the pull connector first, then proceed with mounting and adjusting the system's cable. The inner cable needs to be pulled out to its stop and the linkage in normal rest position to do the hook-up; and when the car's throttle link is pulled all the way back, the system's cable should be able to travel all the way in. Because the system's cable has longer travel than the car's throttle linkage, that's where the bead chain comes in, to give that slack the system needs to operate in conjunction with the car's throttle linkage. Rostra stated that if the subject car's throttle hook-up is shorter than 1-1/4", a special throttle cable would need to be bought separately and hooked up (they also released a YouTube video on how to do that, it is not covered in detail in the instructions). Luckily, I did not have that issue, so nobody else should.
- 4: Throttle Cable/Bead Chain Connection
5. I personally recommend a dash-mounted, panel-configured control switch for any clap-door, especially those of the late '60s, because of the placement of the factory system's control panel. Rostra has several control options for its system, to include at least two dash-mount switches—one with only an "On" LED, and one with "On" and "Engaged" LEDs, the latter of which I chose. There are two wires to that switch that need to be addressed: The white wire which needs keyed power, and the black one which needs ground. There is an easy solution to that: The standard harness has an additional two-wire connector labeled to be used with 6-wire switches (which is what the -3592 control has). Connect the switch's white wire to the blue harness wire, and black wire to black wire. There are also wires for backlighting to the switch toggles which is spliced into the dash lighting circuit; instructions are pretty clear on how to hook them up.
- 5a: 250-3592 Control Switch
- 5b: Additional Hook-Up For 6-Wire Setup
6. I bought the 250-3592 version for its two operating LEDs. For the "Engaged" LED to operate with the system, an aftermarket relay must be acquired. The system will operate normally without that indicator wired up; however, if you buy a kit with the -3592 panel switch, why would you not hook up that light? Rostra's help network stated that it
must be a five-prong relay used, even though the 87a tab is not connected to anything externally. That's not quite true. I had a four-prong relay on hand and used that, because the schematic for its internal connections was exactly the same as the instructions showed. It had a vestigial 87a terminal, absent an external tab but still connected internally to the 30 terminal. The two connections labeled "ignition" refer to separate power connections energized by the key. One of those can be at the pole on the back of the ignition switch; the other can be anywhere there is keyed power. The relay is wired separately from the system's own keyed-power needs, so don't splice the brown feed wire of the main harness through that relay. The orange wire referred to in the instructions is taped down in the harness several inches out from the module, but it's not spliced to any other wire and can be pulled free from the tape; then, crimp-splice a piece of wire of the same gauge to that wire, run it through the car into the cab, trim it at the relay's mounting point, attach a female spade connector, connect to the relay. The pink wire is self-explanatory. The "Engaged" LED serves an additional purpose: If for whatever reason a malfunction kills the system, that light will not go on when the "Set" toggle is pressed, immediately telling you there is a problem that needs to be addressed, so you won't be wondering why the speed drops when the system is supposed to be operating.
- 6: Relay Hook-Up for Control Switch
7. The instructions state to splice the red and purple wires to the brake-light switch. I have past experience that made that impractical, so I advise against attaching those wires there,
unless your car is not fitted with a brake-light relay. As mine has one, I learned that the best connections for those wires are at that relay, which will filter out any possible trace voltage that could fool the module into a perpetual state of disengagement, and help the system to sense ground in the circuit which it needs to do for the system to operate. Attach the red wire to the red wire at the relay, and the purple wire to either green wire at the relay (either can work, but I would suggest the green/white-stripe wire which runs between the relay and the brake-light switch, to possibly prevent overload through the turn-signal switch which would disable both the system and the brake lights themselves). One side-effect I have in mine, however, is that when the system is engaged, if I flip the left turn signal, even partially to signal a lane change, the system will disengage, requiring a tap of the "Resume" toggle to re-engage it. That does not happen, however, with the right turn signal. I'm thinking it must be a quirk in the car wiring that causes that; but it's a minor inconvenience for me. If that doesn't happen with anyone else, then it must've been a construction flaw in my particular car (it was completed on a Friday, after all).
- 7: Brake Wire Hook-Up To Existing Relay
[UPDATE, 15 Jan 2024: That quirk appears to have gone away since the last major surgery I did last summer to the turn-signal switch. The system will now stay in operation if I signal a lane-change left or right.]
8. The brown wire of the main harness is supposed to be attached to keyed power as well. The best place for that connection is at the fuse panel, to the fuse that would power the factory cruise control if the car were so equipped. That fuse will be present and hooked to keyed power on all cars, regardless. To reach the panel, you will need to add extra wire to connect to the brown wire, stretch across the dash and splice to the wiring for that specific fuse.
One more thing, try to route the cruise control's wiring in a way where you won't have a tangled mess inside the dash, which could cause complications for you should you need to do inside-dash work later on. Examine where the wiring could go, and use your intuition to your best discretion. Once done, test the system. Supposedly, you can diagnose the system before a road test, using the operation of a LED inside the module next to the dip-switch board. I couldn't find one in my module, so I just proceeded with the road test outright. The first attempt was not successful; however, after a bit of tweaking to the bead chain—going from two beads to three—and a few wiring changes, the second road test was successful. After hooking up the relay for the control switch, I did a third road test which was also successful. If done right, the system will hold set speed like nobody's business, and the switch has two pretty little lights to indicate operation (well, four if you count the backlighting):
- System in Operation
There is, however, one quirk in the system I have noticed. When the system is off, it will tend to turn itself on at random times, usually if the HVAC is turned on and subsequently turned off, despite the fact that absolutely nothing is connected between this system and the HVAC. A few times it will not do that, but other times it will. However, this is not really a concern: When "On," the system is only in standby mode and will not engage itself; engagement still must be initially done manually by the "Set" toggle. And it still needs to be manually turned off with the On/Off toggle; it will not turn itself off. Its actual operation is not compromised, nor is safety. I may never find and remedy the cause of that quirk, but I can learn to live with it.
I can entertain questions for anything I haven't mentioned, should anyone show an interest in making their vintage clap-doors even better at highway cruising. Now, if your car happens to already be fitted with the factory option, I personally suggest disregarding this post and do what you can to repair your stock system if it isn't working properly. It's just easier to install something that wasn't there previously than to replace a system that is already there. But, this system could go into any clap-door...and being that it is still in production, there is still help- and part-sourcing when needed.
---Tony
