I am currently stranded in northeast Tucson caused by a failing throttle cable made by King Cruise.
My coach was just in for its annual maintenance about a month ago. After leaving Yuma I noticed a change in throttle performance and figured that I probably needed a couple of new return springs as they have failed in the past. I asked my son to crawl under the coach and see what the situation was with the throttle system.
What he reported was NOT GOOD NEWS.
The throttle cable with about 12 strands was frayed with ONLY 1 STRAND REMAINING AND NO SPRINGS EXISTING.
Apparently, my annual service guy did NOT check such things which I sure wish he had done.
I am currently located at my sons property near Catalina Hwy and Snyder Rd in Tucson.
I called out a CoachNet service provider and a good guy came out and removed the cruise control box and cable and anticipated that they would be able to repair the cable in their shop. I am pretty sure that the control box is fine.
The word is now, that they can not repair the cable.
I had previously called King Cruise and "Steve" indicated that I should have them remove the cable and send it in to them and they would build a replacement and send it out "same day". I had given the service company the King contact info and they apparently talked to someone at King who told them that the unit was obsolete and no longer available. I just got this news about 4:45 Friday PM and of course King is in Minnesota and closed and probably not open tomorrow, but I will try them and see if I can make contact as I hate to loose the weekend in my process of trying to get a new cable.
Based on my experience with the springs, I should have replaced the cable much earlier. however hindsight is usually 20/20.
I figure that some of you may have encountered this problem and might have some additional insights as to how to solve my dilemma.
As always, any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated.
Contact info:
Jon Twork
jontwork@gmail.com
520-490-1983
Regards,
Mine is a 96 Jon and Steve in Minnesota put a new cable on it last month.At least you are at your sons and not on the side of the road trying to hook up the rope throttle. I feel like king Cruise has the cable because of my recent purchase.
CALL STEVE YOURSELF: King Control. Steve Boler. 22250 Glyview Trail, Faribault MN 55021, 507-334-0250 try 952 944-9644
Yes, these numbers are a decade old, but start with them. Bottom line, have Steve tell you, not some mechanic what your coach needs.
Steve is great!
Brett
Will look at it in a minute but I have a spare control that does'nt work,will see how hard the cable would be to get off,any chance
you can splice yours,there are some crimping things out there,sort of like a butt splice for cables.
UPDATE:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
,
Current plan is to call Steve at King Cruise as early as possible on Monday morning and "CONFIRM" that IF I drive MY car over to Mobile Maintenance and Towing and get get my cable and/or control box and ship it "BEST WAY" to him in Minnesota that he can repair or replace the cable and/or test the control box (it worked well before it was removed) and ship it back to ME best way. I believe I will have him make up TWO COMPLETE CABLES. while we are at it.
When I get it, I will have the mechanic that took it out, come to my location and put it all back in and then we can confirm that it works.
Thanks for the phone calls and reply messages.
I will keep you informed of my progress.
I also intend to reevaluate my preventative maintenance program.
Apparently something is amiss with it.
Regards,
Jon, Many of us have driven for many days with a cable connected to injector throttle lever, with other end of cable up front being manually pulled with foot or hand. No cruise control, but complete safe throttle control. Many posts Forum. Let us know if you would like to use some of these methods to travel. Very straight forward to temporarily completely bypass King Control.
Jon and most of us have seen them before, a "mechanic " that doesn't want to work making up the out of "that's obsolete. No what's obsolete is so called mechanic that wants to do a blasted thing.
If your cable is unobtainium you can switch to a hydraulic system most off road and dune buggy shops carry. Will likely require bracket modification. Probably less than $200
Don't beat yourself up too bad. The engine compartment is a harsh environment due to high heat and vibration. The mechanical control cables will eventually fail. Those of us who have the
Bendix cruise control must
also remain vigilant to detect early signs of control cable deterioration. If you catch it before it gets too far, it is possible to reinforce the outer cable housing and greatly extend the life of the cable.
Williams Controls WM453109 Air Throttle Valve (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=27762.msg229219#msg229219)
Yes, the upgrade is to AIR THROTTLE with King Control Cruise.
Steve rebuilt my King control a year and a half ago and it's worked great ever since. The control is obsolete but Steve con rebuild them. While my control was out for repair I hooked a wire from my throttle to fuel pump and drove that way. The trans doesn't
shift perfectly as I doesn't get any information from the throttle but it's drive-able.
A guy on the Wanderlodge board is replacing the Bendix model with GM off the shelf parts. The discussion starts here:
1983 PT35 Project - modernification / restomod - Page 57 - Wanderlodge... (https://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28126&highlight=bendix&page=57)
If you are a little geeky like me, that whole thread is fascinating. From running his ACs on batteries to computerizing the coach. He's got it going on!
TOM
The old boy sounds pretty darn sharp. I enjoy looking in on the Bird site as well as the Newell site. Some of the old bus nutts have a clue. Some pretty darn sharp tacks right here on our site as well.I expect to see good news for Jon in Tucson tomorrow after he talks to Steve in Farinault Mn.
UPDATE #2
****************************
Supposedly the rebuilt cable from King Cruise will arrive tomorrow and the Road Service guy will pull the original "end spring" off of the old cable and install it on the new cable. They will then come out and install the cable and hopefully we will be Mobile by then.
We will see how it goes.
At least the weather here is now pretty good. 77 degrees here today. I am also installing two new return springs.
Again, I will keep you informed.
Regards
Do you have a pic of this so i can visualize it...