I recently helped my friend move and had a chance to drive his Mitsu Eclipse,...not quite a Fiero but I made the best. One feature I really liked was the cruise controls built into the steering wheel. Does anyone know of a way to set this convenient option up on our cars?

Thanks

Mike

You need to add the slip ring to get any controls on the steering wheel.

A couple of people have done that mod to get the firebird radio controls to work...but there is a catch. The firebird radio controls are all controled by a single wire. It's analog, believe it or not, and uses a series of resistors to send a voltage to the radio. The radio decodes the voltage into a command. So to operate a cruise or any other device you need to be able to decode an analog or digital signal through a single wire and have it do whatever you want.

Unless you are very good at such things... I wouldn't recomend most people try doing that with cruise. If you mess up even a little the cruise could function almost randomly and potentially go into an accerate mode at a really bad time. Cruise control can be flaky enough on old cars without trying custom controls.

The cruise systems that have such controls are built to be run that way. In many cars it is a function of the PCM and/or Body Control Module.

Radios won't kill you if you screw them up.

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurasic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

The reason I do not like controls in the steering wheel is the fact that you have to look down to see what to punch and that is the exact time you may rear end someone. I like the GM control we have in the Fiero as you do not have to look to push the cruise control.
Don

Ford used to (maybe still does?) have the cruise controls on the steering wheel and I hated them after awhile. The buttons held dirt and dust, and the finish wore off in no time.

saturns have cruise on the wheel and it's like a little ad on so they didnt' have to produce two air bags. use the clock spring and column guts from a bonneville or somthing of the like with out the the one wire button set up (88-95). I'de say that would get you a pretty good start.

quote Originally posted by ka4nkf: The reason I do not like controls in the steering wheel is the fact that you have to look down to see what to punch and that is the exact time you may rear end someone. I like the GM control we have in the Fiero as you do not have to look to push the cruise control. Don

Beyond about the 1st week of using the steering wheel mounted cruise in my Mitsu Eclipse and my current Malibu, I don't think I ever looked at the controls again. You just kind of know which one to hit without looking. Same with the Fiero, but if they're on the wheel at least you don't have to take your hands off the wheel. I rather prefer them to the column mounted controls.

quote Originally posted by maryjane: Ford used to (maybe still does?) have the cruise controls on the steering wheel and I hated them after awhile. The buttons held dirt and dust, and the finish wore off in no time.

My current Malibu is like this, the buttons are on the face of the wheel, and do look a little gross. As for the Mitsubishi controls, they are mounted on a little lever that sticks out of the back / side of the steering wheel. No open buttons to collect dirt, you just push the lever up, down, or pull towards you to control it. I did have a Mitsubishi interior in the last Fiero, but didn't build the necessary conversion circuit to use the Mitsu controls. (planned on adding a second, reversed lever to the left side of the wheel also) Now that I see it in my Malibu, it looks like the cruise box itself is actually decoding the analog voltage from the switches. (but I don't have a factory book to confirm.) If that's the case, the Malibu ( + other similar GM models) self-contained electronic cruise module should be able to be used, so you don't need a conversion circuit. I had the same (physically anyway) module installed and working in the last Fiero, but it was hooked up to the Fiero cruise stalk. As said above, you will need a slip ring or different column with a clockspring to get the signals down from the wheel.

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Bob Williams
Working on the next 3800 swap.. Missing the working one already!

Is reaching an extra 2 inches from your steering wheel to the stalk that inconvenient for you?

quote Originally posted by Riceburner98: As for the Mitsubishi controls, they are mounted on a little lever that sticks out of the back / side of the steering wheel. No open buttons to collect dirt, you just push the lever up, down, or pull towards you to control it.

EXACTLY!!

I love this setup. My stalk setup on my 88 Fiero GT was fine for my taste until I experienced the Mitsu cruise controls Bob talked about above. No buttons to see just a lever behind the wheel right at your fingertips. I drove this Eclipse from SD to Arizona and ever since, wanted to (if possible) apply that exact setup to my 88GT.

I`m sure someone has done this---finding them may be a problem, about 2-3 years ago , surfing the net on Fiero stuff, I did see a guy that put about 80 % of a Trans -Am interior in his Fiero, very nice ...

[This message has been edited by 3800superfast (edited 05-08-2006).]