'98 Dakota 3.9 auto

Cruise hasn't worked in years. The light never comes on and there is no reaction from the system. The light DOES come on with the other idiot lights at startup. CEL is NOT on.

There is no fuse in this system, the PCM sends 5v through it and uses resistors in the switches. Does anyone know the individual resistance values I should read on each switch? I have continuity on all of them so they should be OK but I may as well check that they are supplying the proper resistance.

My brakelights and speedo/odo work fine so not the brakelight cutout switch or the VSS.

Anything else? I have seen a few posts on here with people having the same problem as mine but no resolutions.

Thanks,
Darel

 

Might have a relay. Id check that out...

 

No relays, the PCM does everything.

 

Just a thought, mine has a relay... If I pull it nothing works for cruise, but if it's in it works... What engine do you have?

 

mine works but loses speed very slowly on its own. any ideas on that?

 

Scandal669 yours is probably a slight vacuum leak. Darel, I'm one that's posted in the past with the same issue, but I've never been able to figure it out. I have two sets of switches, checked continuity on all the wires I could think of and just have no idea. I even talked to dealerships about it possibly being a pcm issue since mine didn't have cruise from the factory, but they all said it wouldn't matter, it's probably wiring. One hooked up a DRB to it and said the pcm isn't seeing the signal from the switch. I can't believe both sets of switches I have are bad, but I suppose anything's possible. The wire that carries the signal to the pcm is good too.I installed the cruise with all factory original parts, but nothing. Replaced the brake switch too just to try. Pretty much put this on the back burner for now since I have too many other things going on. Another person on here found he had a broken wire under the steering column. I checked mine, but that wasn't it. Wish I could be more help.If you find something on yours I'd love to hear what it was though.

 

'98 was the first year for the "relayless" cruise.

Thanks yellowjacket. I figured this was going to come down to me tracing out each wire under the dash for continuity, then replacing the PCM (which I'm not about to do).

I gotta admit before I actually went and looked up how the cruise system worked in these trucks, I had a real "WTF?" moment when i pulled the switches out and found four wires total for five switches.

 

How can you tell if your truck had cruise from the factory? I have a '97 Sport. The steering wheel does not have the switches. But the cruise control servo IS present under the hood, and the cable is even hooked to the throttle body. The harness plug is also plugged into the servo. I don't think a "Cruise" light luminates on the dash when I first start the truck -- should there be a "Cruise" light that illuminates as a check? Could it simply be thata previous owner swapped steering wheels to a non-cruise wheel?

 

It sounds like your steering wheel's been swapped. Probably were in an accident and blew the airbag or something.

 

Hey Yellowjacket -

Fixed it! You may have the same problem. Take off the lower half of your steering column cover. You'll see the connector that the two wires for the cruise and the one for the horn attach to. Both of the cruise wires on my truck were broken (gray/light blue and black/light blue). Spliced back together and my cruise works perfectly.

You can see why it happened when you tilt the column up and down, there's a lot of pull and flex on these two wires, especially when the wheel is bottomed out. I'm surprised these broken wires aren't a more common problem.

Hope you've got the same problem it's a 5-minute fix.

Darel