'97 Dakota 4x4 w/3.9L cruise control problem

[BernieB]

I'm just looking for opinions and viewpoints on this. I think I pretty much have the problem figured out and want to see if you folks agree.

The truck belongs to my g/f, who bought it new in '97 and has owned it ever since. She has never used the cruise control on the truck since the day she bought it because she's not comfortable with it. Myself, I'd like to use it at times, such as a couple years ago going cross-country and back. But... it won't engage. I suspect the problem isn't with the cruise control itself, but is in the switch on the steering wheel that sets it. Just getting the system to activate takes a couple of hard presses on the switch until you hit just the right spot. The green cruise control light on the dash will then light up to show the system is activated, but no amount of pressing or fiddling with the "set/resume" will get it to engage.

The way I see it, since the truck is now twelve years old and the system hasn't been used, the contacts on the switch are probably tarnished and otherwise "gunked up". I don't really feel like disarming the airbag and disassembling the whole thing to to confirm this, then putting it all back together, ordering the parts, that doing it all over again to replace the switch when it gets here.

Anyone know which wires in the harness goes to that switch? I figure I can just disarm the airbag, pull the connector and put an ohm meter on it to see if the switch is actually working or not.

[BernieB]

Anyone?

[Dash]

I don't know much about Dakotas, but cleaning the switch contacts would be my course of action. Have you tried spraying contact cleaner directly into the switches?

[BernieB]

See, that's the thing... To get at the contacts to clean them I need to disarm the airbags and disassemble the wheel. If I'm doing that I'm not going to waste time cleaning, I'll just replace 'em and be done with it. But before I go through that trouble and expense I was hoping to verify that it was the switch by pulling the connector and running a resistance test on it. I just need to know which wires and I can't find my wiring diagrams for the truck. There here someplace... just not quite sure where.