I noticed that my cruise control switches do not light up when I turn the headlights on. I didn't even know they were supposed to until I drove my dads 99 ranger. Does anyone know what might cause this?

 

Actually, on some years they light up, and on other years they don't.

 

Your 2000 should have illuminated speed control pods.

There are other possibilities but, by far, the most common problem is burned out bulbs. They are hard to find and, as far as I know, Ford doesn't sell them separately from the speed control switches.

It is possible to replace the factory bulbs with long lasting LEDs using John's How-to.

 

If your 2000 was built BEFORE 06/2000 then they do not light up. BUT I have modded mine to light up, all you need to do is tap a power wire into the pod illumination wire- do a search and you'll find the post I did about it.

 

Here ya go!

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ht=cruise+pods

 

Too bad you didn't say something when I parted out my 03 =]

 

That's odd. I have a 2000 Ranger wiring manual that shows them as illuminated. It was printed at the beginning of the 2000 model year (8/99).

 

My Ford CD says any 2000 model Ranger built before 6/2000 dont illuminate and "illuminated pods shouldnt be installed on those vehicles"- mine was built 11/99 so that explains why mine didnt light up

EDIT: The wiring is there but the only thing missing from the plug that the clockspring goes into is the power wire for the illumination- the clockspring wiring seems the same for any other cruise equipped ranger. The mod that I did to mine fixes that though..

 

Interesting that they would include almost everything needed and publish it as working in the earliest edition of the 2000 Wiring Manual and then leave it inoperative until the very end of the 2000 model year run.

Thanks for the info, BJ.

 

Yea that is wierd its 90% ready to work. Im pretty sure I have a later 2000 because my truck has the live axle set up. What do you guys mean by the clockspring? I have never heard that before. Thanks for all the insight on this!!!!!

 

It is a plastic cassette that mounts to the steering column with a spool of flexible ribbon cable inside. It makes the connections between the dash harness and the steering wheel electrics while allowing the steering shaft to rotate. A clockspring set up for cruise control has more conductors than one without.

In this picture, the clockspring assembly is white:

 

Thanks for all the help. I pulled the connector out of my fog light switch, used a test light on the connectors and found which wire made the light change with the dimmer. Then I ran a wire from the red/black one coming out of the clock spring so that wire on the back of the fog light switch. And I works. Very awesome.