Rebuilding the Cruise Control on the 1966

The 1966 Coupe deVille is a very well equipped car with lots of options.
Too bad that almost nothing worked when I got the car.
Of course I do not accept any non working things on my cars.
So with the help of another Cadillac aficionado who is good with anything electric - we took on the big challenge to repair the “Perfect Circle Cruise Control“ of the 66.
We had no idea how it worked and only had the shop manual as a reference.
The speed reminder function did kind of work, but the cruise control function was completely inoperative.

It took us a couple of days to fix it properly and now it works like the day the car left the factory!

We encountered a multitude of problems:

  • 1) The dash mounted switch was defective - the plastic gear to set the desired speed was broken.
  • 2) Most of the contacts inside the unit were oxidized
  • 3) We had to adjust the contacts inside the unit properly and calibrate the system to the speed set on the dial
  • 4) As it turned out later the brake switch was not properly adjusted (we should have checked this first and read the shop manual properly...)

After a lot of trial and error we eventually learned how the system works and we finally could adjust it correctly. It's a very nice system when it works properly, but you really have to calibrate it correctly. It's a fascinating option and there is some great engineering behind it. As it is rather complicated to repair you will see a lot of 60s car without a working cruise control.
Luckily its pretty well described how to adjust the contact points in the shop manual.

1966CC-SM-8129
inside the system - still on the car
1966CC-SM-8135
the “perfect circle“ unit on the bench
1966CC-SM-8136
1966CC-SM-8140
the dash mounted control switch disassembled
1966CC-SM-8141
the broken plastic gear before we repaired it
66CC-SM-8421
the rebuilt and perfectly cleaned unit - back in the car

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