For the last couple of years I've been fighting a cruise control that just won't hold a speed. I lubed throttle linkages and checked vacume but no help.

Over the weekend I had pulled the instrument housing to repair a stuck odometer and to lube a speedo cable due to a vibrating speedo needle.

Well, now the cruise control maintains a set speed, very smooth transitions. I've had the instrument housing out over the last couple of years so I'll eliminate electrical contacts being reset at the speed sensor pickup at the back of the speedo. The only thing that makes sense to me is that if the speedo needle was jumpy becuase of a sticky speedo cable then the sensor was not able to "listen" to a stable speed.

Hope this helps someone.

S,
J.R. Brown
1980 450 SEL
1986 280 GE
1981 Volvo

I don't seem to have any troubles with the cruise control but I have had that hyper speedo needle since I got the car..it will do that up to around 30 or so then stop as speed increases. Did you get it to stop doing that? How? I have an 89 190E 2.6...Is it very hard to pull out the instrument panel?

BenzoX,

for the 80 450SEL it ws a matter of removing the panel above the driver's legs and unscrewing the speedo cable from the back and then giving the instrument cluster a nudge. It's held in by a rubber seal. You can use a hook type tool, but my way is easy. If your just removing the cable you shouldn't have to remove the cluster.

As far as the cable itself I removed the cable to the service counter (cable is about 18 to 24 inches long). I then treated the cable to a teflon based lubricant and stood it on end for a few minutes to let it drain down. Then reinstall.

So far so good. There's no downside, upside is it may work.

Good luck.

J.R.