RebuiltRunner

I know the vast majority of you all already have cruise, but for the few peasants like me who didn't here is a little bit on my experience installing Rosta cruise system supplied through Toyota parts for a Tacoma V6:

The unit itself is fairly compact and comes to you wires already bundled together and plugged into the main control unit. There is a bracket to replace the stock cruise cable bracket.
The install itself was pretty simple I think.
First you gotta mount the control unit itself. You can just use the factory mounting holes over the right fender. There is a leg bracket that secured it from the bottom.

Problem #1: The picture in the instructions show the lower part of this leg bolting to an in the tire hump. The only holes I saw in the area had a diagnostic plug's holder bolt in it. So I just mounted it under that left bolt (I know, really earth shattering problem). It's a fully electronic piece, so you only need to plug it into the wiring tree that's goes in the cab and connect the throttle cable bracket to the pulley segment of the throttle body.

Problem #2: The picture of the pulley segment in the inst. manual doesn't look like the one on my engine. I thought it may have been due to the revision that happened to the 3.4 in '98. In the picture, there is a throttle nut to connect the bracket to that's slightly behind the pulley. On mine, the only place I could find to out the bracket was on the tip of the threaded spindle that the throttle pulley pivots on. IF somebody can tell me where the other mystery attachment point is, speak up. Personally, I just think the picture is wrong.

Besides the pulley attachment, you may have to adjust where the cable bracket holds onto the cable. It holds onto the cable with a plastic threaded connector. All you do is screw it up and down the cable to allow you to be able to mount the bracket to the throttle body w/o the cable holding the throttle open at all.

After that you have to route the free end of the wire bundle into the cab. I used the grommet on the driver's side as the inst. suggested. I'd say getting the wires around that grommet was the single hardest part of the process. At first I tried to push the grommet into the cab - ended up gashing my pinky on the edge of the hole in the firewall. After returning from triage unit in my bathroom, I pushed the grommet into the engine compartment whidh probably made cutting a slit for the wires to go through easier. The kit comes with a little block of putty that you can use to seal up the whole/slit you cut in the grommet. I did that and moved in to the cab for the real fun.

The first thing you might wanna do is take the lower part of the dash off and, although you probably already did this to get to the grommet, the driver kick panel - WHICH may come off easier if you take the plastic strip that runs along the bottom of the door off. After all of that, you connect the second wire bundle to the brake switch - this is pretty east, straight-forward stuff. Next is splicing ignition switch.

Problem #3: This was the first time that I was doing anything with the wiring system on my truck, so I was completely relying on the inst's to tell me which wires to get into. Unfortuneately, the picture pointing to which wires to tap is BLANK. It tells you the pin number and the colors. I got out the Haynes to help, and tapped them. While I was under there with the lighter (my only source of light, did I not mention that it was by now midnight?) I noticed little numbers on the back of the plugs. According to it I was in the wrong wires and the Haynes manual was wrong. So I went back and fixed that and slapped a little putty over the knaws the T-taps made in the incorrectly tapped wires. Next was getting over to the ECU to tap the Vehicle Speed Sensor wire. This time the diagram showing which pin was the VSS wasn't blank, but it also was'nt accurate to the actual plug. After about an hour of looking at all of the plugs to make sure that there was only one green w/orange striped wire among them, I tapped that one and plugged everything back in.

The last major thing to do is cut the whole in the steering shroud for the control stalk. You may want to take a look at a 'Runner or Taco that already has cruise to give you an idea of where to make the whole, but about an inch above the whole for the tilt lever should be pretty good. And for anybody worried about not having something to drill the whole with - I used a sharp kitchen knife. If you decide for some reason that you want to take the stalk off or are not happy with the system, just put a little plastic plug from the hardware store or interior trim rack at AutoZone.
Connect the stalk wires and the plugs from the control unit to the wiring tree and the deal is pretty much done.

The system works fairly well. The stalk looks EXACTLY like the one that would e on the truck if you'd bought the truck with cruise. However, I know what people mean when they say it's not like stock. The main thing I realized is that the system doesn't drop back to third gear to pick up a big loss from the set speed. To be honest, this ain't a real big problem for me since that always got on my nerves in my old '88 Trooper. If I feel I need it, I just reach down and tap the OD switch. As someone once said here, "I prefer control,".
This sytem is made by a company called Rostra and it is a model called the UltraCruise II. If you go to the Rostra website it will tell you about the system having DIP switches that you can use to make adjustments in the performance of the system as well as it having a self diagnostic system. Well, the it seems the version sold by Toyota doesn't give you access to those settings. I pulled the wires out of the control unit and I thnk I see the dip switches,, but there's no grommet in the top of the case to give you access to them as described by Rostra. I would just take the top of the box off, but there are little stickers over the edges that proclaim, "warranty void if removed or torn,". PLUS the instructions that came with my unit said nothing about a diagnostic mode. I find this particularly strange since this feature is used as a selling point on the toyotaworld.com. Then again, that site also claimed that the actuator was located in the passenger compartment and was connected directly to the accel. pedal. Hmmmmmm....
The unit cost me $175.00 plus shipping from toyotaworld.com. You might want to go to the ROSTRA website and find a dealer who can tell you how much the non-Toyota UltraCruise II kit is. Just make sure that you're getting the stalk that look slike Toyota stalk (unless you don't want it to). There's also an RF control system that will put the controls right on the steering wheel next to the air bag - had I checked the site being getting mine I probably would've gotten that.

I hope this helps somebody. Maybe just an excuse to stop looking at work for others...

UKMyers

You should do this up as a word document, take some pics and submit it to the tech section.

gumbo

Nice write up thanks for the info. now all I need to do is buy the unit.

RebuiltRunner

You're right, UK. I grabbed my camera with the intent to document the process, but I got a little too involved with it, plus, since I am COMPLETELY impatient I started at 6 in the evening, so many of the pics wouldn't have had good enough light. If I can think of somebody with a digi camera I might do it this weekend, otherwise I gotta use my film camera and that involves me gettin' up offa my and getting the film developed.

Two other things I meant to say in the post.

1) I know it's basically just a generic controller, but I don't see why Rostra didn't just set it up to be able to work with the stock cable bracket and pulleu connection. Mine already had the stock cruise bracket. Oh, well...

2) T-Taps SUCK! I wasted at least an hour messing with those things. To me a better way to use them is to strip a little bit the wire then clamp the taps on it. PhxTRD will probably find this blasphemous, but he's 3 states away and a belt won't reach that far.

Cebby

Anyone who tries them will find out - they suck. Worst invention ever. I got into a urination contest with someone on here about how those darn things should not be used. They're awful!!

Robinhood150

What are taps? Are those the things that clamp on the outside of a wire, cuts the insulation and connects another wire? If so, how come they're bad?

mikedog

Jeez! I thought the Taco had cruise control standard by now.

Do you know if they make a "kit" for the 1st and 2nd gen Runner's/PU's?

-mikedog

Cebby

Yes, that's what they are. Also referred to as "scotch-loks" (3M's brand) They are bad, because they are unreliable.

Robinhood150

oh, ok.

RebuiltRunner

To elaborate a little, what I found to be the problem with the T-Taps is that on wire thick enuf to carry current, they don't do a very good job of getting through the wire covering and securely around the metal of the wire.
The concept for is for them to press the wire down with the clamp onto a contact blade that cuts through the wiresplastic and then serves as conducting material. The problem is that the blade isn't really sharp at al. If you manage to get it to break the wire's covering, you have to make sure that the tap doesn't move around , or you'll lose your contact point. Since I had to take my taps off to put them on the right wire, I got to see the little knaws they made...not much happening there. That's why I went back and stripped a bit of wire, then reattached the tap. Of course, the most permanent thing to do is solder, but I didn't have away to get juice out to my truck (apartment dweller).

Cebby

Have you ever tried butane soldering irons? They work pretty well! Here's a Weller model

PhxTRDRunner

Haha, T-taps when used CORRECTLY will work great for 99% of all jobs. I probably do 100 alarms a year and I can't tell you how many decks and whatnot, and I have so far 0 failed t taps this year. I think I might have had one last year, I can't remember. Long as you use the correct size per what wire you are tapping, they are just fine.

LOL, flame away boy's, but I have great luck with them. Been installing 9 years now, cruise's included so I guess I have a half a leg to stand on.

Everyone has their preferred methods

RebuiltRunner

Oops, sorry Phx. I had you mixed up with Jay and something he said in an old post:

"All the cruise controls I have installed have been the ones toyota themselves supply. The instructions were adiquate even for the lesser skilled technicians. I do make the recommendation that one not use the supplied "t tap" for making the electrical connections. Personally nothing annoys me more that a hack job installation, leading to future problems down the road.
(Perfect time to promote my Soldering Tips ) "

nevertheless, the belt still won't reach this far

What kind of cruise units did you install. when you installed them, did you connect them using the stock cruise brocket on the throttle pulley or did you attach a bracket behind the little nut on the front of the pulley (assuming you installed one on a 3.4 V6)?

Lucky

I've never liked Scotchlocs although I've used them a lot installing wiring but only for non essential items like power aerial wires etc. They are quick but they aren't long lasting.

As far as jobs I do are concerned if I need to T Tap a wire I will cut the main wire, slip some heat shrink on it, connect the 3 cables together, solder and then shrink wrap. This kind of joint lasts forever, has very low resistance. However you need good access which is why under the dashboard for some really hard to get to places I have the Scotchlocs. However I just know they won't last long.

Also another problem is that you can only really use them if the cables are all the same size. If you are tapping a smaller cable into a larger cable you need to use the large size, they then don't make a reliable connection to the smaller cable.

Cebby

That's how I do mine...