Cruise Control On/Off Dash Light

I have a 2003 Ford Ranger. I have installed an aftermarket cruise control system that is essentially the OEM system. It is made by SCS Frigette for Ford and came with the FOMOCO instructions. My vehicle never had the cruise control wiring harness so I hard wired this system in as per the instructions. It works great but lacks one feature, the cruise indicator light in the dash does not work. The light bulb is there (I checked) but it does not come on when I activate the cruise. I phoned SCS Frigette and they would not tell me how to wire in the dash light and said that the system never intended to activate the light. I have managed to get a Ford wiring diagram and it shows a wire from the VSS to the dash panel to activate the light. It is the same VSS wire that I wired into the cruise control module. Could this be the case, that the same signal for the module also turns the dash light on? My understanding is that the VSS signal is pulsed. Could a component in the dash use that signal to illuminate the indicator light? Can anyone help?   

The VSS wire can't power a bulb. There is likely a wire in the actual factory cruise that is only designed to activate the bulb. Don't try hooking the VSS wire to the cluster as you could damage things.sparky

Thanks for the feedback. I looked again at my limited copy of the FOMOCO wiring diagram. It shows a grey/black wire coming from the "Powertrain Control Module" (PCM) to the Speed Control Servo (SCS). There is an input signal from the VSS into the PCM as well. Tapped off the grey/black to the SCS is a wire to the instrument cluster. My hard wire cruise by-passes the PCM, but the same grey/black wire from the VSS is still there. In fact the VSS signal wire to the Generic Electronic Module is where I tapped off the VSS wire.All this is also shown in my factory wiring diagram copy. I agree it seems strange that the VSS signal would be used to light the dash light but that's what is shown. If anyone has access to a 2003 V6 Ford Ranger factory manual I would appreciate some info as to what is shown there.   

Ok, I've done some more investigation on my vehicle. It seems that the cruise control module #1 harness wire is the wire that turns the dash light on when "Set/Accel or "Resume" is pressed. I hooked this wire to a DMM and went for a drive and found that when the Set/Accel/Resume button was pushed I got a constant 30mv signal, and when the cruise was cancelled the signal went to 0v. Now I'm not sure why this signal would only be 30mv, it's not enough to turn a light on, but it might be enough to switch some kind of relay in the computer. I have tried to buy a 12V relay that will switch with 30mv but so far I cannot find any. If anyone here has any ideas or input I would appreciate it. What would really help is if someone could use a late model ford with factory installed cruise to confirm what I have found on my Ford aftermarket one. If someone could check the harness and see how many wires are on the harness and their color and if there is a wire on #1 pin location, the bottom wire. If someone could take a pic of theirs and email me that would also help. The wire may go into the EEC computer??   

I have been following these posts with interest as I have a similar situation. I have a 96 F-150 XLT w/cruise, but no indicator light...this seems to me kinda shortsighted on Ford's part. Anyway, I would like to install an LED in the system, but am not sure which wire to tap into. I belong to FordF150.net and folks there say that an answer is available on crownvic.net as someone there has done it. I just registered with that site this evening, so will research when the Administrator opens my account.

Brett, I've been all over the internet trying to solve this, believe me it's not out there. I think the crown vic info will only say pin #1 is the dash light wire, but won't say where to hook it up. Do you have a wire coming from the #1 pin? Do you have factory installed cruise? If not what cruise system do you have? The 96 may not have had the dash light option. If you have factory cruise you will first have to use a DMM to see what voltage is coming from pin #1 and when. You should be able to use a paper clip to insert into the #1 pin position on the harness. Make sure you have contact with the connector inside and tape the paper clip to the wire to hold it in place. You will then need to go for a drive and actuate the set/accel/resume/cancel buttons on the steering wheel and observe the voltages. You will need a helper to do this safely. This Ford set-up is a little dumb since why do you need a light to tell you the vehicle is driving along without your foot on the gas pedal. I'm really trying to do it because it's a challange and I'm a little anal. Ford does not provide a way to tell when the system is on. The on/off circuit is always hot with about 7-9 volts, pushing "ON" only sends a momentary 12V signal to the module to get it set for cruise mode. When "OFF" is pushed to de-arm the cruise the voltage momentarily drops to 0V then back to 7-9 volts when the button is released. I have not been able to find a relay that will ony activate at around 12V but stay unswitched at 7-9V. If anyone on this board has some ideas on this I would appreciate feedback. I would prefer a light that says the system is armed, rather than a light that says it on cruise control mode.     

Hi pcpc, I have the factory cruise on my 96. Like you, it's more of a challenge to do it. I agree, too, that it isn't hard to tell the cc is activated!!!lol Well, lets keep at it and hopefully one of us will be successful!!! In the interim, I'm going to attempt to install a remote starter. That should be fun! Thanks to the response to my post! Brett

"it shows a wire from the VSS to the dash panel to activate the light" What does it show to make you think the VSS to the dash panel is for the cruise light, and not for the speedometer? Mike

Ok here's what I came up with.. Look at the diagram below for the wire that would make the OEM cruise light come on. From what I can find the ORANGE / black wire goes to one side of the cruise bulb, and the ORANGE / light blue wire goes to the other side of the bulb. The ORANGE / light blue wire is the wire that actually turns the bulb on. Test the ORANGE / black wire to see what it reads. Then turn the park/headlights on and see what it reads. If it stays at 12volts the whole time, a ground to the ORANGE / light blue wire should turn on the light itself. How you are going to use the cruise to turn this light on, is still up to you. The OEM servo sends the signal directly to the bulb on that wire. And again, stay away from the gray/black wire it is not what you need to mess with. Good luck, Mike Mike