Cruise control cable loose

I recently came across my old Tacoma by happenstance at a used car lot. The nostalgia took over and I scooped it up. I'm in the process of cleaning up the PO's/stealership's mess. One thing that has me stumped is the cruise control cable. It has WAY too much slack and I'm not sure why. Also it is offset from its attachment point on the throttle to where it clamps to the bracket. Does anybody have some knowledge to share? Maybe the original cable broke and was replaced with the wrong one? Maybe the bracket on the throttle side was swapped out and is shorter than the original? Hoping to find out what most likely happened so I'm not chasing the wrong parts. Thanks.

 

Have you tried adjusting it at all? See the 2 nuts that are holding the cable sleeve to that bracket? Those are the adjusting nuts. See if they are loose. The one furthest away will adjust the cable tension. You don't want it super tight, just leave a small amount of slack. The front nut will lock everything into place.

 

That was my original plan when I was adjusting the throttle cable but there's not nearly enough room left in the adjustment to take up all that slack. I popped the other end off of the cruise control box and it looked normal...

 

Might just be the cable has stretched out then. Mine has some slack in it from the years but not that much. I'm at the end of adjustment too so will probably have to replace the cable at some point if I want to keep the cruise feature.

 

Looking closer, I wonder if the PO maybe removed some stuff from your TB. My 99 looks a little different although we have the same Ford cruise units.

 

You're right it is different. Not sure why. I stopped by the junkyard today and found exactly 1 3.4l 4runner that happened to still have the cruise unit. I grabbed the cable and compared it to mine. Mine was about 1" longer so I swapped them. This one still has to be adjusted all the way out like yours appears to be, but it worked. I can now cruise again! Still don't know how the original cable could have stretched that much....

 

I kinda feel that it probably didn't stretch that much. I think the PO of your truck either swapped the TB out for a different one for some reason or has taken shit off the one you have. Notice that the lock washer thing is missing from the TB shaft. It would go over the nut like you can see on mine. And the cable being mis-aligned is odd too.

 

It appears the valve covers were off somewhat recently. All that would have been removed to get to the valve covers. Maybe some shade tree stuff went on.... I'm pretty sure the guy that traded it in is the same one I sold it to 4.5 years ago. Might have to look him up to get the story.

Another thing I found: The PO must have become frustrated with the parking brake light coming on all the time and instead of tightening the cable adjustment by the frame he cut the wires from the switch that controls the parking brake light...... At least it was an easy fix.

I'm still super stoked to have it back though because this was my first vehicle I got when I was 15. I built the tube bumpers for it when I was 17 in my buddy's shop. I won multiple trophies drag racing it at the local strip in the "high school" class. Lots of memories...

 

@IdaTacoTRD
Your throttle body has been swapped out with an auto trans t-body. They may have a different bracket/cable and do not have a dashpot, the black plastic thing on the front seen in post #5.

 

That makes sense. I did see witness marks where the transmission cable had been hooked to it. Why would the cruise cable not line up right though? Were the brackets different?

 

I don't think the cruise brackets are different, looks the same to mine. I think the cable cams on the TB are setup differently and like @Dirty Pool said, yours doesn't have the dashpot that mine does.

 

Weird. Well I suppose I'll leave it alone for now because it's working fine.

Thanks

 

Yep, looks like that's the case.
Man Trans set up (99).

 

Prolly entirely different motor.

 

@IdaTacoTRD
If it feels good to you then carry on.
The dashpot is designed to "cushion/slow" the final bit of throttle plate closure, improves "drive-ability" when shifting gears.

 

Thanks I was wondering what the dashpot was for. I'm not having any trouble rev matching or anything. Now I am really curious as to whether the engine was swapped. Maybe I can do a title search and get the PO's name. I should have kept his info when I sold it....