83 300D Cruise Control

[rmmagow]

Forgive my ignorance, I'm new to the car and have no owner's manual. How does one activate the cruise control? I've read about the amp thing under the dash and if CC doesn't work I may start there. I probably won't do any thing until I get the full set of shop manuals. If after following directions, the cruise seems to not work, what should be the order of checking for problems?
The Climate Control system. Well, A/C is real cold but on the far right I seem to be missing a button of some sort. The switch has three functions that I can see, a small green colored thing (missing the button), a white plastic switch in the center, about a quarter inch high and lastly a black button with a picture of a fan. It all seems to do something but I can't figure out how it all works together. I don't want to mess with much since I've read the climate control system is a bit failure prone.
The gas pedal. When I press the pedal there seems to be an inordinate amount of free-play. I was checking under the hood and see a lever on top of the valve cover that could well be worn. I'm guessing that the lever actuates something akin to a throttle plate on a gas engined car. Is this lever my source of free-play? Is it an obtainable part? The rest of the linkage seems tight and nicely lubed.

Thanks Much for any advise.

[lrg]

CRUISE CONTROL: There is a lever just behind the left Turn/Wiper stalk on the steering column that works the cruise control. You need to be going over 25 MPH and both your brake lights need to be in good working order (it uses those as a ground). I believe you pull the stalk toward you to turn on and push away to disengage. Up is set/accel. and down is coast. It should be marked on the end of the lever. If the system is completely inoperative then check your brake lights to be sure the grounds are good. Beyond that you may need a new amp or acuator. www.gdl-online.com has test info available on line and sells rebuilds. I just had my amp rebuilt and it works great. (I have no vested interest in that outfit, there are others too.

CLIMATE CONTROL: The buttons on the far right of the panel are for fan speed. The top is for highest speed, the narrow one in the middle is for automatic range (it goes up and down depending upon the command fron the auto climate control) and the bottom, the one you are missing the button for, is lowest speed. The bottom button looks like the top button but the fan pictograph is slightly different.

"GAS" PEDAL: (Technically fuel pedal.) It sounds like the linkage has too much freeplay in it. There is no throttle plate in a diesel, only a lever to the fuel injection pump. The rest of the linkage ties to your cruise control actuator which is a small box located in the left front of the engine right next to the power steering pump. See if you can tighten up the linkage from the firewall to the top of the engine. There should only be a tiny amount of freeplay. You should be able to wiggle this a bit to see where it's loose. The parts are probably available at the dealer but I'd bet you could find a good assembly at a junk yard for almost nothing.

Hope this helps.