my cruise has been bypassed. I ordered a rebuilt transducer online.
Now that it has arrived it is different. Hoes connections in different locations.
The electrical hook ups are also different. Mine has three terminals but only 2 were hooked up. It has 2 horizontal spades and one vertical one.
The one that I purchased has 2 horizontal spades. Will this one work??
I assume the wires are a positive and negative. Was going to just put new wire connections to connect the 2 wires. Will try to attach photos of each.
Thanks

 

What year are you working on?

The three wire one you took off, is an 81-82. The 81-82 has the extra wire, because they have Resume Feature, that wasn't on earlier cruise systems.

The silver transducer that's mounted on the car, is sort of the correct one for a 77-80 Corvette. I'm not familiar with the bracket, and and solenoid that's mounted on the side of it though. To the best of my knowledge, the only difference between the hook up of the 77-80 and the 81-82 transducers, is on the earlier one, two wires go to two terminals on the top, one vertical and one horizontal. On the 81-82, you have three wires, with the third one going to the extra vertical terminal, on the top of the transducer.

 

mine is a 79. It has the 2 wires. One horizontal and one vertical. The 3rd spade is not hooked up. The wire connector on mine is the correct one to fit it. It just leaves one spade unused. If I use this one I bought I would need to change the wire fitting.

 

If you have a 79, then the transducer that you took off the car, was the wrong one. As I said in my previous post, the three terminal transducer was only used on 81 and 82 Corvettes. The three wire transducer is designed for systems that have the resume feature, which was not available on the Corvette until 1981.

I don't ever remember seeing the bracket or solenoid, that's on your new transducer, used on a Corvette. I'm not saying it couldn't have been, I just don't ever remember seeing one.

Below are three transducers that came off of 78-80 Corvettes, that we parted out years ago. None of them even have the holes to mount the bracket that's on yours?



The only thing that I can suggest is to try taking that bracket and solenoid off of the new transducer, and then hooking it up the same as the old one was. Your existing two wire plug, should attach to the "HOLD" and "ENGAGE" terminals on the new transducer (you can see them in the picture below, and near the steering box, in the picture you posted), and then connect the vacuum hoses the same way they were with your old transducer.



Do you have a 79 Shop Manual (a real GM one, not a Chilton's or similar) or the 79 Assembly Manual? The Shop Manual will have a trouble shooting section, showing the connections for the cruise. The AIM will also show the installation of the transducer and the attachment of the wires and vacuum hoses.

GM used the same basic design transducers on all of their brands, for many years, but there were variations to them.

From looking at the picture of the "new" transducer you have, it looks like one of the vacuum ports on it might be blocked off (the one without a hose on it). If so, I'm not sure if that transducer will work on your Corvette, because I think the Corvette uses both of those vacuum ports.

 

FWIW: C3 transducers mount on the rear of the driver's side fender skirt with a bracket. Yours appears to be way down close to the steering box.

 

Any replacement transducers with 3 wire connecters where meant for Buick or Oldsmobile applications....the 3rd wire connections was meant to light the Cruise on indicator light in the dash for those applications. Resume applications can be 2 wire but will have the additional Resume relay attached to the transducer. You can use the 3 wire transducers but they should not have the Resume relay attached. You only attach your 2 wires. Diesel transducers had all 3 connecter in vertical position, this is how you can tell a Diesel transducer from a gas application. Don't switch those up.

 

The two wires aren’t positive and negative. HOLD and ENGAGE are both positive. Negative is a separate wire that runs to a ground point.

What you really need is the Cruise Master Troubleshooting guide. You can usually find a pdf copy online. Or, if you’d rather, you could shoot me a PM with your email address and I’ll email you a copy. That will explain everything in detail - wiring, hose connections and diagnostics.

 

OP from this thread from 8 years ago has not logged on in over 3 years.