I *Luv* that MGA (of course I would, it's RED!) and the fact he actually DROVE it there from a great distance!!

Your car looks Really Good next to that mural. I'm so glad for you that your little trip went well.
(';')

 

I spent the afternoon in the garage and reworked the section of exhaust system near the right rear wheel to get another finger's worth of clearance. I have about 1" of clearance between the pipe and the tire and I haven't decided if I am comfortable with that yet.

I also did some trouble shooting on the cruise control and found that the "Set" button on the end of the the turn signal lever is kaput. I thought I could clean it but no go. I pulled the rest of the cruise control pieces from the engine bay and bought a Dakota Digital electric cruise control. I have been using the vacuum-operated Audiovox CCS-100 cruise control units for years, but I decided to bite the bullet and try an electric unit.

I ended up the day trying to track down why my horn isn't worked. It works if I jumper the relay socket and terminal 86 of the relay has power - so it's not a fuse issue. I am pretty sure that when I pulled the steering column this winter I missed the ground wire for horn switch. I JUST realized that the PB wire I was looking for is not PINK with a black tracer, it's PURPLE with a black tracer. So it's once more unto the breach...

 

I can answer that for you, Thomas, you are not!
I am very interested in the CC aspect. My car has th eoEM system removed as I hardly ever used it and the pain it makes of plug changes and anything else in the V with it in place. But a modern system that was out of the V would be very useful to fit.

 

You're right - I'm not. But I have an idea.

 

Congrats Thomas. Great to hear you're up and moving and the governor foxed your issue. Love what you did with the exhaust too. @LnrB my lockup TC has an issue too. It works fine until the oil gets hot and then it pops the fuse. I can actually run a voltmeter and see the short to ground occur when it gets hot. I haven't figured it out yet. I don't spend much time on the highway so it hasn't been s priority. What's your issue?

 

Jeff - do you think your solenoid is shorting to ground when it gets hot? The good news is that they are cheap and easy to replace. While you're there you can check the wiring inside the transmission to make sure that's not an issue either.

 

It's hard to believe it's been one year, 385 posts and 21K+ views on this thread. When I sold my 2009 XKR I knew I wanted something I could tinker on and I think I got my money's worth

 

Yes, Thomas, you did indeed get your money's worth!
Not only that, The Rest of us got your money's worth too!
As I said, Good Job!
(';')

 

Mine is obviously a defective solenoid. It acts Just like yours does, works fine for a few miles then cuts in and out until it finally quits completely. When I got the car, the hot wire to it was disconnected and dragging on the ground under the car. It took some investigation to discover what the wire was for.

I spend the majority of time on the open road, but there are so many other things elbowing their way to the front of the line (real life sucks pond water sometimes), and the car runs fine as it is, that I've not been in a big hurry to break into the trans to replace the solenoid. Maybe when it gets too hot to drive a BLACK car (110+F) I'll get to it.

Actually, now that gas price has gone to the moon, sooner is probably better than later.
(';')

 

Sure enough, my cast aluminum transmission pan is a good bit wider than a stamped steel pan and gets too close to the exhaust. Although I have a decent exhaust shield on the pipe there's some knocking on heavy acceleration that isn't going to work.


This is a stamped steel 700-R4 pan I picked up off Summit Racing and it measures almost 3/4" narrower than the cast aluminum pan.



Next up was the cruise control. After doing my research I pulled the trigger on a Dakota Digital CRS-3000-2. The -2 means it comes with the small rectangular control pad that you can mount on a flat surface - more on that later. If I had a brain that was bigger and with more folds I would have ordered the CRS-3000 that comes without a control pad and saved myself $50.

I started with hooking up the throttle connection. I ended up using the "loop" wire connector:


And dropping it into the backside of the throttle capstan with a small bolt acting as the anchor. The cruise control cable is attached to the right side of the capstan and pulls across the front side of the capstan. I'm not super happpy about the connector but I had no choice.


The switch that came with the cruise control looked and felt cheap, so I committed to using the factory switches. Here am I testing everything with the switch that came with the kit.


Braided loom does an excellent job of hiding the rainbow colors of the wire harness while also not looking like something that comes off the shelf of AutoZone.


This is the backside of the factory cruise control switch. It will turn the cruise control on/off as well as "resume" the set speed.
I was able to get the factory "set" switch to work by using a relay but that's not an exciting picture.


I spent a lot of time on where I was going to put the actual cruise control unit. It measures about 5"x4"x3" so it's not big - but it's not small either. I thought about putting it next to the brake master cylinder but didn't like the prospect of it roasting under the hood. So I pulled off the passenger headlights and took a look - did you know about all that space in there? Plus it's much cooler than the engine room - so I think we have a winner.


I pulled off the front-side right-hand fender panels and there is more than enough room to fit the cruise control unit, as well as a rectangular opening into the engine bay.


The downside is that I am going to have to extend the wires but that is not the end of the world.

 

Thorsen
In this photo, I see the cruise cable, I see the throttle cable; but what is the cable that is NOT attached to the capstan, that come into the photo at the top RHS?

 

Greg,
That's the throttle valve cable that connects to the transmission and adjusts line pressure. I removed it from the throttle capstan while I was working out the layout of the cruise control cable. It's reattached now.

 

Thorsen,I moved my stock cruise control to the enclosed space behind the right front wheel. Just remove the cover and there's lots of space there. The cover protects it nicely.

 

Here's a picture. The cruise Unit is mounted vertically. In this picture, I haven't run the actuation cable yet.
​​​​​​​

 

That's a good idea - and will be much easier to wire up. I'll take a look - thanks for the idea!

 

AHA!!
I see a Drain! My car came to me with no such provision and I always said I would have one put in if I ever dropped the pan!

I think it's time to buy her a Present since I have to work on the TC locking anyway.
(';')

 

Thorsen
In your setup, how will you prevent the accelerator cable looping away from the capstan, with all the dangers that brings of becoming unhooked or jammed, when the CC pulls the CC cable and opens the throttles? I have thought long and hard about this and have not been able to come up with anything except the OEM solution of the CC cable pulling the accelerator with its rather complicated mechanism attached to the pedal.

 

Honestly - there's nothing to prevent it. I just went out there and played with it and I can see that as a valid concern. More to come.

 

This was my original ide for hooking up the cruise control. This is the original cable that attached to the bellows - the other end attaches to the gas pedal. I put on a cable nut that I had in my parts drawer.


I went searching through my box of cruise control parts and came up with this. It's a bracket (I used two of them) and a piece of steel. The rough finish is because they were zinc coated. I threw them in the sand blaster to clean them up.


Final product. On the left is the wire from the Dakota Digital cruise control and on the right is the cable that goes to the gas pedal.
My TIG welding is super rusty but this should hold.


It looks like I can fit the Dakota Digital cruise control behind the right side fender panel (thanks for the suggestion @jal1234 !) and hide this in the valley of the V.

 

When I moved my stock cruise control, I bought a generic longer cable and modded the end to fit onto the stock bellcrank mechanism above the accelerator pedal. Works well, and made for a clean installation. Jon