[roger1]

I've got a '55 Chevy Bel Air with a Ramjet 350 crate motor running the stock Mefi4a ECU and a new Tremec T56 Magnum aftermarket 6-speed transmission. The transmission has a 2 wire inductive VSS and I have a VDO electric speedometer that is working perfectly. After calibration it is reporting that I have 32,380 pulses per mile.

I've got my Dakota Digital (DD) cruise control (made by Rostra) installed and started wiring it up and ran into a snag.

The DD cruise wiring only has one wire for a VSS hookup and the inductive VSS sensor coming from my T56 Magnum has 2 wires. And btw, I hooked an ohm meter up to the 2 wires on my VSS and neither is a ground. The inductive VSS sensor must generate an AC voltage to the 2 wires.

It appears the DD unit VSS wire is designed to come off the ECM and not directly from a VSS sensor like I have. (My Ramjet 350 ECM doesn't use a VSS signal so I have no VSS out from it.) The DD instructions say it needs one wire from an ECM or one of the 3 wires if using a 3 wire VSS sensor on the transmission. I did get a comment on another forum where someone had a DD unit that indeed does work with his 3 wire hall-effect VSS sensor.

Is there a converter that I can use to generate the signal the DD unit needs?
I sure don't want to have to put a magnet kit on the car (yuck).

Anybody have some suggestions on a solution? I sure would appreciate it.

 

[Bryan59EC]

I believe you can just hook one of the wires coming from the sensor to ground.

That is how I have the speedometer hooked up in my 59.

Just looked at the instructions for a Rostra Cruise

Hook the gray VSS wire to one of the sensor wires----the other sensor wire will just need to go back to the ground wire going into the cruise box.

EDIT!!!!!!!!!!
Went back and looked again-----your best option would be to use the 2-wire (gray/Black) connector for the add on kit.
Will be doing essentially the same thing as mentioned above ---- Just use those 2 wires (one is spliced to the gray vss and the other goes back to the ground buss in the black box)
and connect them to your current sensor----there is no pos-neg on the sensor so splicing orientation is not important.

 

[roger1]

I believe you can just hook one of the wires coming from the sensor to ground.

That is how I have the speedometer hooked up in my 59.

Just looked at the instructions for a Rostra Cruise

Hook the gray VSS wire to one of the sensor wires----the other sensor wire will just need to go back to the ground wire going into the cruise box.

EDIT!!!!!!!!!!
Went back and looked again-----your best option would be to use the 2-wire (gray/Black) connector for the add on kit.
Will be doing essentially the same thing as mentioned above ---- Just use those 2 wires (one is spliced to the gray vss and the other goes back to the ground buss in the black box)
and connect them to your current sensor----there is no pos-neg on the sensor so splicing orientation is not important.

Do you think this could have an effect on my VDO speedometer that is already hooked up to the 2 wires?

 

[roger1]

I just did a test and grounding one of the wires causes the speedometer to read zero.
Grounding the other one doesn't affect it at all.

So, I'll ground the one that doesn't affect the speedometer and hook the other one to the Dakota cruise wire and see what happens.

 

[roger1]

Well,

Success!

Just took the car for a test drive on the highway and the cruise control works beautifully.
No effect on the speedometer either.

A problem solved!!!!

Thanks much!

 

[Bryan59EC]

:thumbup:

Cool

 

[Gringo]

Dak dig

I know the guys from Dakota digital and they are nice guys. If you have any questions just call them up and they will walk you thru it.

 

[roger1]

I also wanted to mention something that works very well with this Dakota/Rostra cruise unit.

I noticed in the advertisement that at sometime a new feature was added to it that said a switch on the clutch (for a manual transmission install) was not necessary anymore.

It comes with a wire that attaches to the tachometer and the unit detects a small sharp rise in engine rpm if the clutch is disengaged and the unit will then disengage the cruise.

I tested this a few different times at some different speeds and it works excellently. When I depressed the clutch, I didn't even notice that spike in rpm in noise or feel. I could see it if I watched the tach but it was only a few hundred rpm spike.

This feature makes the install easier as installing a clutch switch would take some custom work since there is not a direct fit kit for that.

I'm overall very impressed with the operation and quality of this unit.

 

[Bryan59EC]

My 98 Chev K1500 cruise seems to work the same way.

I am considering working out the wiring and putting one of these boxes in
both of My Elkys.
The 59 already has all of the output-input needed on the gage controller box.
(dakota gauges)

The 66 might be a bit more trouble, but not too much as I already have the speed sensor in the trans.

 

[roger1]

Thought you guys might like to see how it looks. I went for the optional braided cable to match my throttle cable (made for Dakota by Lokar which also made my throttle cable) and the brushed aluminum cover for the switch control.