Cruise Control In Series 2

[Guest trevhoare]

I have a 95 SII Mi16 to which I want to fit cruise control as I live in the country and spend a lot of time trying to sit below the 100kph limit. The victorian police consider 103 KPH to be breaking the law and there are plenty of marked and unmarked cars with radar. A friend who has been for a ride in a police traffic car tells me that the radar locks on and records the speed within seconds of the car becoming visible so there's no way to avoid getting booked if they are on the road where you are.

Of course at 100 Kph the XU10 is just getting to its max torque so it is quite a challenge not to let the speed drift up. Not to mention the fact that this car can safely cruise at much higher speeds and feels so good doing it...

So I am looking at cruise controls. there are several issues:

1. Where to put the actuator? there's not much space in the engine bay! - A friend who has the dealer fitted system - an american system called Dana I think and no longer available has the vacuum actuator bolted to the engine side of the firewall almost in the centre where it must be subject to a lot of heat rising from the exhaust when the car is stationary. I would prefer to put it in the plenum behind the firewall or down below the air cleaner....

2. switchgear? the Ex dealer system has a nice unobtrusive 3-way wand below the indicator wand on the left of the steering wheel which controls functions and the on-off switch on the centre console. The main systems available here have a choice of a dash mounted pad (not particularly good looking) which could not be within reach without taking a hand off the wheel or a clunky looking wand with various switches. In my opinion this would look awful in the Mi

3. speed sensor? I am told that there have been some issue with the VSS signal from the sensor on the speedo drive. I had magnets on the driveshafts with a sensor on a 205Si which worked OK but the systems with this tend to be the ones with the clunky looking pad controls... Has any body had any experience with the speed sensor signal from the speedo and if so which wire?

 

Any feedback on these issues would be much appreciated...

 

Trevor

Boolarra South

Victoria

Australia

Edited March 11, 2006 by trevhoare