[DeTomaso] More cruise control issues

[Christopher Kimball]

I seem to remember when my previous, Audiovox unit was working (before LED taillights) and I had the signal from the tach or distributor (I can't remember which) being used as the speed sensor, if I hit "resume" in a different gear the car would begin to rapidly accelerate for the very reasons Mike discussed.

I came up with an incredibly novel solution--if that ever started happening, I simply touched the brake to disengage the cruise control!  Then I reset it in the new gear.  Worked like a charm, although I'm sure it never would have passed the government safety checks.

Chris



PS:  Off topic, but speaking of the government, I was at an auto show this weekend (lots of people looking at the Pantera; mine was the only one there), and I witnessed a sickening activity.  It seems they had one of the "clunkers" from the cash for clunkers program, and just for fun they had people pay $1 each to see who would come closest to guessing the correct time it would take for the engine to seize with no fluids in it. 

The car was a 1985 Buick Regal.  Now, I have no love for that particular car (or many cars from that era), but this one was in pretty good shape.  A little buffing and the paint would have looked good, the interior wasn't bad, and the body was totally straight.  It had been a one owner car, I believe, and was loaded with power everything.  A once proud car now being ridiculed and tortured before a group of leering onlookers.

The car started right up and ran for about 42 seconds before the engine was completely ruined.

As I said, I have no particular love for those kind of cars, but when I was 17 years old, I could't fathom buying a new car and therefore didn't have the luxury of disdaining anything that ran reasonably well.  So, I got a loan for $600 and bought a two-door, 1970 AMC Ambassador SST (360 w/a 4-barrel).  The car got 10.6 miles per gallon, but I loved it anyway.  I remember fixing it up, adding a cool stereo, lowering the suspension a bit, adding baby moons; in short, doing all the things a teenage boy wants to do to his first car.

Watching the destruction of what could have been a wonderful first car for some young person made me sick.  Like that's going to help the planet.  How big of a "carbon footprint" does manufacturing a new car make?  And what about the landfill space now being used by the car that now is junk?

Sorry, I didn't mean to get political, but it's just that I remember how many lawns I had to mow to save up for my first car, and intentional destruction of perfectly good property is hard for me to take. 

> From: fresnofinches at aol.com
> To: detomaso at realbig.com
> Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:17:42 -0700
> Subject: [DeTomaso]  More cruise control issues
> 
> .....in a car that has more than one forward gear, RPM is less than
> useless....
> 
> Not really, at least in our case.
> 
> Just when is someone going to 'set' a cruise?  In third gear, fourth?
> 
> Noooo, it will be set at highway speed, in fifth gear.  And then it  
> does become, in essence, a one-(gear) car.
> 
> And once in fifth gear,  an engine RPM signal will work just fine  
> until you shift.  And doesn't any clutch pedal use release the cruise,  
> anyway?
> 
> Or heck, get the Ford OEM piece I referenced earlier in the day that  
> generates a signal from the RPM of the speedo cable.
> 
> Larry
> 
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