Installing cruise control on aftermarket steering wheel

I posted this a little while back on FSB dot com, but thought I'd add it here as there seems to be more active discussion at Gary's place.

How to add cruise control to your aftermarket steering wheel

I thought I would write this up for anyone who is interested in trying to do something similar on their own. I’m not particularly knowledgeable on circuits (quite the opposite) but there is so much info out there that I was able to cobble together a coherent explanation. If I am incorrect about anything I’m sharing, I welcome your feedback and corrections.

In advance I’ll tell you that a significant portion of this info comes from FSB.com, Steve83’s library, and Gary’s Garagemahal. Credit goes to them for basically everything I’m restating below.

For those who hadn’t seen it before, one of the popular mods that people like is the Saleen Mustang steering wheel. I think it’s the 87-89 MYs that have this customish bracket that mounts the cruise control buttons. Occasionally you can find them on eBay. I wanted to do something similar on my own so that’s where my idea came from.

First thing to know is that the 2 wire plus ground setup in our steering wheels that combines the 5 CC buttons and horn is actually a fairly common feature of many Ford/Lincoln/Mercury’s for like 20 years. Not sure which exactly, but there are a lot of them. The biggest difference in the steering wheels that share this circuit design (other than the aesthetics) is the hub. My truck (84) has two “brushes” poking through the top of the steering column next to the turn signal switch. Ground is connected via contact with the spline (threaded part that the steering wheel bolts to).

Picture here:



In my case I’m using a set of controls from an 87 Mustang. The original steering wheel connections are still attached in the picture below (but the horn is not, you can just see the two connectors dangling loose). From what I can tell there will be 5 wires total coming out of the compatible controls and they will be 3 colors. I think the actual colors are irrelevant because the wiring seems to follow a standard regardless of color:

1 BLACK
wire comes from each of the controls, links together and connects with one end of the horn button and also the ground via the spline

1 color variety comes out of ONLY ONE of the cruise control switches and it connects to the other end of the horn and one of the brushes via the hub ring

1 color variety comes out of BOTH cruise control switches and connects to each other as well as the remaining brush via the other hub ring.

I have only seen a very small sample of cruise control switches so I don’t know how far the above advice will go. One way to be certain that you have the wiring right is to buy it still connected to the factory connector like I did. Almost all of them come that way anyway.

Picture here:



Finally, you can see from the picture below that I pulled from Gary’s site that the inner ring (and therefore the inner brush) is the horn circuit and the outer ring (and therefore the outer brush) is the speed control circuit. Because I don’t know enough about circuits to explain it any other way (and because it’s mostly deductive reasoning) I’m assuming that the horn circuit has to actually have a connection to the horn. In the wiring scheme that I explained above, only one of the connections (of the two that are not ground) is actually connected to the horn, ergo this most be the horn circuit and and the other color must be the speed control circuit.




Now that I’ve misused the term circuit several times, I’m going to stop talking about how the wiring works and get into how to connect all the components together into a neat package. The next post below puts it all together.

Here is what I’m starting with I’ll explain each component in a little more detail:



First and foremost is actually the hub adapter. It is incredibly important and difficult to find a hub adapter that will work with the two brushes and ground. Not all will! In my case, I’m using a Momo brand steering wheel hub adapter (because I personally am a big fan of their products) that I have tested and confirmed makes contact with the brushes correctly. It is model number 4513. MOMO Steering Wheel Hub 4513 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J8GV3W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_eZIHEw7xMf23I




FYI I looked at a couple of other adapters that looked like they had the right connections but which I didn’t like as much in terms of finish and quality. They are out there; I won’t name them and I haven’t really tested them.

Next, how am I going to mount the cruise control switches? Well I have seen some pretty creatively engineered solutions out there, but I’m taking the easy way. I bought a replica of the Saleen mount with nifty little cases to conceal and house the switches behind the mount:





I bought it on eBay. I’m sharing a link that may or may not be working when you see this post. If this link doesn’t work, search for a company called Engineered Velocity in Springfield, MO. I am not affiliated with this company or their products, just a customer and passing along if it helps: Saleen Mustang Cruise Control Bracket Ford 87 89 GT LX 302 5.0 Fox Body Cobra 93 | eBay

Finally, to the steering wheel (isn’t that the point of this whole exercise)! In this case I’ve chosen a Sparco wheel. Based on the hole pattern of the hub and the CC switch mount, I need a 6 hole wheel with one hole at the top and bottom of centerline. Lots of Momo hubs and Sparcos and others have this configuration. I chose a Sparco because of the materials and shape of the grip, but one of the hardest parts about finding a wheel that worked was checking to make sure that the spokes didn’t block the cruise control switches. There weren’t many that the Saleen replica switch mounts I bought fit with. The Momo Montecarlo is very popular, highly customizable and fits with this mount (I checked).


I am mounting this onto a tilt column for my manual truck (picture in prior post too). I replaced a broken turn signal module (the one originally installed had a broken turn signal cancellation thingamabob) but, for the purpose of comparative pictures it is otherwise as it was pulled from the 86 donor and the wire colors should match what is expected.
First thing we have to do is cut off the old connectors. You have to do that so you can thread the wires through the switch mounts and connect them inside the hub adapter. Finished product with connections made per my last post will look something like the below. You should have two connections for the horn (one of them black) 1 connection to ground, 1 connection to the horn circuit and 1 connection to the speed control circuit:







Now we have to connect the switch mount to the hub. You can tell which of the hub’s black wires goes to which brush ring by looking at the Momo hub adapter wiring closely (some dumbass decided to color both wires black SMDH), but it’s pretty obvious in the right lighting. These get connected to the colored wires. The ground on this is intended to be via a metal horn retaining ring with a tab that sits in between the steering wheel and the hub. I ditched it because the Sparco horn button didn’t fit with that ring in so I just put in a ground terminal as a wiring connector sandwiched between the hub and the mount. If you use a similar ring, you will need to snip out a couple of openings for the cruise switch wiring to pass through. Supposedly the horn has its own ground via that ring, but you still need to connect a ground for the speed control circuit so technically the way I have it wired creates two ground paths for the horn circuit but I don’t see why that would be an issue. YMMV on the ground ring provided. Here is a picture of everything wired together inside the hub:







Once the hub and switches are wired together, use the six screws to hold it all together. Leave the horn button off until after you mount the steering wheel assembly onto the spline. When you have it on the spline all you have to do is screw the nut down to the appropriate torque

Final product:






 

Very nicely done!

Yes, VERY well done!  

I was just saying yesterday that I don't want to go to an aftermarket wheel 'cause I'll loose the speed control.  But not now!

Sorry to drop in on your wave..., but who here prefers the factory wheel to a good aftermarket one like this MOMO?

What is the appropriate torque?

And this is nicely done.

Assuming the question is for the nut holding the steering wheel on (not the nut holding the steering wheel ), according to our page at Documentation/Interior/Steering Columns it is 30 - 42 lb-ft.

... both metric and Imperial: 41-57N-m(30-42 ft-lb).

I LOVE that Gary has the docs online. So easy to find this stuff in there.

Vic Roma wrote

Sorry to drop in on your wave..., but who here prefers the factory wheel to a good aftermarket one like this MOMO?

I do.

Very nice guide and the finally product looks about as seamless as you could ask for.

I knew I should have looked first...

No prob.  I know where things are and that makes it easier for me.

As said nicely done.

Got a question or 3.
I take it you started with a CC truck that worked?
That the replacement column has to be for CC also?

I think I have seen a post or 2 on CC but did not pay that much to them as my truck dose not have CC and the after market looked to rich for my blood at this time.
But you never know what you may come up with in your travels and want to know what to look out for
Dave ----

Hi Dave,
My truck already had cruise control installed from the factory, so I know I had the parts that were in working order. Adding a wheel and column from a cruise truck will not give your truck cruise control if it wasn't originally equipped, obviously, since there are many more parts involved in that system.

The steering column is a little trickier and I'm not sure I can give you a definitive answer, but I will tell you what I know. The tilt column that I bought was already off the truck, so I don't know what options the donor had.

When I bought the column, the turn signal switch had a busted piece of plastic that controlled the turn signal cancellation. Instead of just replacing that small piece of plastic with a cheap and fragile aftermarket part, I bought a used but good condition turn signal switch like this:



As you can see, the "pins" for the horn and speed control are a part of that switch. As far as I know there are only two types of switches, one for tilt and one for fixed columns. I have never seen a part number mentioned outside of those 2, so I have to assume that was the only way they came.

Seems like if you wanted to verify that, the easiest way is to take the steering column cover off and look at the connection from the turn signal controller. You should see a yellow wire (maybe yellow with a blue stripe) and a blue wire. Then you'll know the pins are there.

Chad, thanks for the information.
I know there are other "under hood parts" that make up the CC system.
I was more asking about the column and wiring.
Is there a CC harness that would be part of this "under hood parts" as there is a tie in to the brake switch and a clutch switch.

I have a non-CC column that I can check if the signal switch is set up with the 2 contacts.
Thanks again
Dave ----

There is a multiconductor "jumper" that is necessary for adding speed control.  It plugs into the two halves of C305 and pulls out the power and horn pad signals for the horn relay and the speed control.

You can see it in the illustration below.  The connector labeled C305 is the one from the truck's harness.  The connector labeled C305A is the female connector for the jumper, and the connector it is plugged into is the other half of C305 going to the turn signal switch and then to the horn pad via the brushes.

Thanks Gary.

It looks like it kind of works like the factory AC add on harness does.

So the CC amp has a lot of wires to it and you just plug this box in between the turn signal switch plug and run the rest of the wires, if any, to where they need to go.

Great something else I need to look out for when I hit the junk yard for the needed AC parts.
On that note what years work with an 81 truck?
Dave ----

FuzzFace2 wrote

On that note what years work with an 81 truck?
Dave ----

Well, that's a very good question.  And the answer is, I don't know.  But all Bullnose speed control C305A harnii can be made to work.

The issue is the position of the power feed to the speed control amp.  It changed somewhere between 1982 and 1985 as I'm using an '82 speed control harness in Big Blue and found the change.  It is discussed in detail in this thread and following.

But that can easily be fixed by removing the red retainer from C305A and swapping pins.

Gary Lewis wrote

FuzzFace2 wrote

On that note what years work with an 81 truck?
Dave ----

Well, that's a very good question.  And the answer is, I don't know.  But all Bullnose speed control C305A harnii can be made to work.

The issue is the position of the power feed to the speed control amp.  It changed somewhere between 1982 and 1985 as I'm using an '82 speed control harness in Big Blue and found the change.  It is discussed in detail in this thread and following.

But that can easily be fixed by removing the red retainer from C305A and swapping pins.

Ok got it, so need to check the pin outs between the truck & the CC plugs to make sure they match up.
Thanks
Dave ----