I posted earlier about an issue regarding my cruise control and how it somehow just died on me. I re-read what I posted and I was somewhat unclear to what I was attempting to explain. Sometime back in June when I first had the vechicle registered, the 3rd brake light in the back (yes, it's a wagon) was NOT working. However, it's to the best of my knowledge that the Cruise was fine at this point. (I recall using it driving up to Poughkeepsie NY on I-684 and once again down the NYS Thruway) Sometime in mid July (I believe it was the 13th) my father and I crimped one of the blue wires in the back hinge to make the 3rd brake light work. On my ride back to upstate NY, I do not believe I used the cruise control on any of the roads. The very next day, I was removing a bulb in my instrument cluster (the SRS bulb.. The airbag was previously deployed, and I was getting annoyed at looking at it all the time). While putting the cluster back in, I haphazardly didn't take notice to what wires went where, and I accidently put a red/white wire into the back of the cluster (the tachometer wire) and shorted it out attempting to start the car. I was told by someone at ipd that I sent about 12V to the cluster and thus shorted out the speedometer, and I'd need to get a new one from a salvaged vechicle.

Now, is there anything on the cluster itself that regulates the Cruise Control? I noticed on the "new" cluster that it didn't have the same things the "old" cluster had. I don't know how well to explain it, but the old cluster had this thin metal tube running from the speedometer towards the area where the gas/water temp gauges are. The new one, didn't have that.

Also, could fixing the 3rd brake light in the back disable the Cruise Control? It doesn't seem like it's possible, but then again.. anything's possible.

Sorry if this is lenghty, but I relaized I left out some key issues in my first post. Knowing my luck, my issue is something with the engine vacuum hoses. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

-Steve D.
1990 240DL Wagon
112K