Just wondering if anyone can help out with a pic of their 2.8 equipped with cruise control (under the engine bay) I just want to see where the items are located as I want to convert over to factory (i have a chessy aftermarket setup right now. All my searching revealed people removing it or troubleshooting it but no pictures except after removed.

Also, does anyone know if the hardware under the hood is the same as on the v8? I assume the servo is but what about the mounting brackets and cable. Do i have to get them from a v6?

thanks, any help would be appreciated.

 

let me look through my pics, i have a working Cruise control in my 83 (stock one) if i dont post pics tonight i will have them tomarow for you

 

here we go, Its only the engine bay part, i have 8 pics, hopefully i got what you needed, let me know if you need something else as well

 

That's a lot different then my 1985. Ill take some pictures of mine tomorrow if you want.


edit- Actually, you have the part, slightly off camera, that my 85 uses for cruise.... That black object with a cable going to it, directly to the right of the evap can in the 5th picture... that is the servo which mine uses. I don't know why yours has that, plus another.

 

if ive read correctly through the searches i did a while back, Theres differances in the early to late models for the cruse control, i'm not quite sure when the changes occurd (year wise) but i do got to figure out how in the hell to adjust it so i stop going 5 miles faster then what i set it to...

 

XopherTony's guide to retrofitting cruise
control into your non CC car.

edde Jr PMed me and asked me how to do this, rather then send a reply i am going
to post it here for all to enjoy.

ok, i am writting this under the asumption that all non equiped cars are allready wired for CC (CC=Cruise
control). i believe this to be correct. also, the placement of the Crusecontrol is DIFFERENT on a firebird
or camaro. i personaly find the camaro version alot uglier, and don't see why the firebird version was not
used on both. so i recomend you getting CC parts from a firebird for your camaro.

1st things first, you will need to go to a junkyard/autostore/Stealership and procure the following items.
a. CC controller. this is the box labled AC behind the lower dash trim, see image below.
b. one CC brake sensor switch. this will be the higher of the two on the brake pedal assembaly. the one
with the vaccume line going to it.
c. one CC vaccume diphram. this is the big flying saucer deal near the washer fluid reservoir
d. if going with the firebird style on a Camaro, you will also need the Firebird washer reservoir, as it is
formed to acomidate the diphram.
e. one CC clutch sensor switch if you have a manual trannsmission.
f. the "orb of power" vaccume canister in the fender. you may allready have one. not sure.
g. vaccume line. about 10 feet. same size as the stuff that goes to the "orb of power" vaccume canister
under the fender. also same size as washer fluid hose on firebirds.
h. one "T" fitting that will acomidate said vaccume line.
I. vaccume line. the size that fits on the brake switch. 10 feet.
J. the expensive part. purchase a new turn signal arm WITH cruise control. or chance it on a junkyard one.
these ALWAYS break. the wires come undone inside the arm (leading cause of CC failure on fbodys so far
as i know).
K. one vaccume check valve. this should fit the smaller vaccume line.
L. throttle linkage. you will need the linkage that goes from the diaphram to the carb/TB. you MUST get
the cable from a car with the same engine as your car or the cable may not fit. at best you will have to
adjust it, i don't envy you there. if possable get it from the same car as the diphram and don't unhook it.



ok. now that you have all this stuff in a box next to the car lets move on.

STEP ONE
remove lower dash trim on both sides. on passanger side use 9/32" interior fasteners to fix CC controller
in position and plug in to wire harness. should only be one plug that will fit. see photo below for location.
should be a 16 pin switch but not sure.

STEP TWO
remove old trun signal arm. this requires WAY more force than feels necisary. i realy thought i was going to
break somthing. now put the new one on. you must feed its wires through the colum. i found the best way
was to feed somthing up from the bottom, use tape and pull the CC leaver wires back down that way. there
should be a plug for this down there. hunt for it. it has an odd shape so
it should be easy to see.

STEP THREE
attach brake pedal switch and Clutch switch (if M5 equiped) and use original harness connections. attach
some of the larger vaccume line to the nipple on the switch. this will need to feed through a hole in your
firewall.

EXPLINATION:this vaccume line connects to the corisponding nipple on the diphram and is a "Brake dump".
when you hit the brakes it dumps ALL vaccume out of the diphram so your cruise immediatly stops working.
this is a saftey feature only as the controller also oopens the vent on the diphram. i drove with this plugged
for a while before i noticed it and replaced it. this is only a backup incase your controller goes nuts i
recomend plugging it in. can't be to carefull.

STEP FOUR
under the hood. take your vacccume line and route it to your diaphram location. secure it away from
headers/manifolds and such. the factory location (87+) is in that mounted wire channel. or (pre 87) just
taped in with the looming along the frame rail.

STEP FIVE
mount diaphram (and washerfluid reservoir if applicable). this should be fairly obvious if you pulled it from
a junkyard car. locate factory plug and plug it in. on my 88 this is a 5 pin connector with black,
drk-blue/white, lt-green, lt-blue/black, and Tan wires. it is a flat connector, as in five wires wide. on my
86 it is different. but it has been so lon i don't remember. plug in larger vaccume source (to brake dump)

STEP SIX this step is written as though you have no vaccume canister in your fender. i am pretty
sure you will have one even if no CC is equiped, but i am laying it out anyway.

mount vaccume canister in factory location (under driver side fender) and run a vaccume line all the way
to a vaccume source. place a check valve inline near the "T". after this check valve, as close as possable
to the diaphram, place a "T" fitting. run some more smaller vaccume line from this "t" to the smaller nipple
on the CC diaphram.

VACCUME SOURCE LOACTION:
a. fuel injected 2.8s this will be above the dizzy on back of intake. the larger side is for the brake booster,
smaller side should be capped. use the smaller side.
b. carburated 2.8s this could be anywhere. there should be a few capped sources on the carb. just pick
one. if it runs goofy now pick a different one.
c. 3.1s ther may be a larger and smaller fitting on the back of the intake, the larger for your brake booster,
the smaller should be capped, or you may have the 2.8 style "T", i can't remember. use tha smaller.

STEP SEVEN throttle linkage. if you were smart, you have this allready connected to the diaphram
from your downer car. run it along and hook it up to the factory location. i don't know where this would
be on a carbed car, but on a fuel injected car there is a black bracket holding your throttle cables, this one
hooks into the outermost hole, and then takes it's place on the throttlebody. if this cable is hooked up
wrong BAD **** will happen.

STEP EIGHT the test drive.
A. turn on car. if engine starts racing turn it off and fix your CC-throttle linkage.
B. get car up to 25MPH or more. turn on CC using switch and engage. if it works yay!
C. test your clutch and break switches. push clutch to the floor and ensure CC turns off. if it does not test
the switch with test light and replace if neccisary
d. hit the breaks. if CC does not disengage test switch and replace as neccisary.
e.test accelerate/coast/set/resume/ and OFF functions of switch.

if any function does not work, and it is not the fault of the individual components, do not freak out. it is
probably a bad controller, or diaphram. there are more advanced testing steps (7 pages worth) in your
Factory service manual. use it.

if the cruise control does not funtion at all follow the factory service manual steps for testing the switch.
the manual has you test a bunch of other crap 1st, BS. always check the switch first as it is the weakest
link in th CC system.




this is a picture of my CC equiped GTA. it's a 350V8 and not a 60*V6, sorry. but the polacement of the
components is mostly the same. you can see in the bottom right there is the washer fluid reservoir, with
a weird object burried in it. that is the diaphram. you can also see two vaccume lines coming out of it.
the larger is for the break dump and the smaller is for the source vaccume. you can also sorta see the CC
throttle cable looping around. if you look closley at my TB you can see that it has a large oblong loop. this
allows you to go WOT with the CC engaged and not damage your vaccume dipharam. the CC will simply
assume it is giving too much gas and back itself off, however with the large lop this will affect nothing
until you let off the gas. it's a well designed system.



in this image you can see the location of the factory equiped CC controller. this is in my six. i actualy have
never removed the controller. i was never sure what it did until later and never went back through and
inished my "delete"

this next image is one i drew a few years ago. it is a vaccume diagram for how your stuff should look when
done right.

 

Thanks a lot for the pics Firebreed! Unfortunately it sounds like the MPFI setup is different though according to toehead.

Toehead: that would be great if you could get a few pics so I could see the 2.8 MPFI setup. thanks.

Xophertony: Holy smokes, thanks man! THat's an awsome write-up. I should know exactly how to set it up now ones I gather the pieces. A couple questions though:

- why is it located different on the camaro if it is the same engine etc, and anyone know where it is mounted on them? Does that mean I can only get the firebird setup then (for the right size throttle cable etc)?

- forgive me for asking but what is this "orb of power" and where is it located? You say I may already have it? Why would that be?

thanks for all the help so far guys!

 

On the camaro, the little black box is under the drivers side panel, and the servo is also on the drivers side. I will take pictures as soon as I find my camera.


The orb of power is a vacuum resevoir that stores vacuum for low vacuum situations. Since the cruise is vacuum powered, this is important.

 

Do you have AC too? I was reading in the book that the motor controls for the HVAC are vacuum operated as well and have a little rectangle tank on the firewall above the brake booster. I have this, however, I am wondering if you have cruise and AC if you have both or just the "orb of power" because it says in the book vacuum tank for non cruise.

 

I don't have the little rectangle box. My parts firebird without cruise did, however. The orb of power is under the driver's side fender

 

some cars have different bits different places. my friends LG4 (carbed 305) camaro had the reservoir on
the firewall, the square one. and THAT reservoir fed his CC as well. it realy does not matter. i prefer the
round one because it is out of site.

my GTA Did have Air conditioning as well. it was pulled a while back. all of my passanger vents in my
GTA are vaccume controlled. in my 6 they are all cable controlled. it was a factory no AC car.

the camaro cruise control is located on the frame rail closer to the battery. it does not matter which you
instal, so long as you use the correct throttle cable for your location. IE if you use the camaro kind put it
where the camaro has it by default, if you use the firebird kind put it on the fender where the firebird one
goes.

as for why they are different i have NO IDEA. i noticed it on another friends TBI 305 camaro last weekend
and only looked at it briefly. also, camaro's do not have holes on the fender to mount it in the firebird
location, they do however have the raised portions where the holes would go, so you can drill them.

to see if you allready have the orb of power lay on your back and look up inside the drivers side front
fender well. you are trying to look at the bottom of the battery (if your battery is on thaqt side). if you
can see the bottom of the battery/intake tray you do not have a vaccume reservoir there. it will be a
round "orb". thus the nickname.

 

Did your GTA have the one on the firewall above the brake booster too?

On the drivers side or pass side?

I am almost certain I don't have it thinking back to when I had the car apart for restoration. Which makes sense anyway if cruise wasn't factory and I have the one on the firewall for the vents.

 

no. i believe that is a camaro only thing. or a carb only thing. i have only seen it under the hood of carbed
camaros. i have never seen a (factory) carbed firebird engine bay (weird huh).

driver side. just a little forward of where it is on a firebird. that is why i found it so odd. they are almost
the same, just different. like most things on a camaro, it is more square and out of place looking (oh,
owned :wink: )


there should be no issue using this vaccume canister instead of the fender one. a vaccume canister is a
vaccume canister. you could use anything as long as it was sealed.

 

Actually, firebirds have it too as well as fuel injected cars.....as mentioned I have it on my 85 FB MPFI. I think it is a vacuum vent/no cruise equipped car thing maybe?

So how many ports are on this orb tank? Do you have vacuum vents on the GTA and if so, is that were they go to since you don't have the firewall one?

 

well if you look at the crappy diagram above, the HVAC venting (if electric HVAC os equiped) uses the smae reservoir, and tees in at
the chackvalve. the orb has ONE nipple. my GTA has electrically controlled vents, thus they oporate with vaccume. normally they will
be cable controlled on a heater only car and cable/vaccume on an AC car. i think. i only have a electric HVAC ac car so do not know
for sure.

it iss cool to use the firewall vacccume canister. it should hold enough vac as long as you are not cammed.

 

ok, have another question. Picked up the module and diaphram/cable from the wreckers the other day. Ran out of time and forgot about any switches on the brake or clutch. What exactly am I looking for there? According to my book it refers to a brake switch and clutch switch (i have 5sp) that both have a couple wires going to them and then there is also a vacuum release valve listed on the diagram for the brake pedal. Does this mean I am looking for 3 switches? Anyone happen to have a pic of them mounted so I know what ones to grab?

thanks.

 

on the brake pedal of a FACTORY CC car, there will be two swithes, one (lower) controls when the brake lights come on, 86+ will have two plugs going to this switch. the second switch, mounted higher, will have one plug and a vaccume line going to it. the vaccume release is built into the switch (making it easy to identify)..

i'll go get a picture from my 86.. it still has the switches since i never removed them.

EDIT* hmm.. a few things are different with my 86, it only has one clutch sensor swith (neutral saftey and clutch sensor in one) and the brake dump is seperate from the rest of the brake switch, which has two plugs going to it... anyway, i have attached photos.