Thanks!
So, here's the status.
Brief background: We had purchased a new stalk from some online retailer for about $35. We installed it. No joy. That is the event that lead-up to this post.
Over the last few weeks, we noticed that cruise control kicks in when the right blinker is on and the high beams are deployed. The only moving part in this system is the stalk, so I _had_ to deduce that the new stalk -- however improbable -- was bad, too.
Thus, last night, I decided to take the OLD stalk, which we'd kept, apart. I pulled it down to the board, ribbon cable, and connector. I peeled off the insulation on the cable (which seems like some sort of black latex) and using a meter and sliding the probe around, discovered a non-visible break in the endmost trace, occurring right where the "cable" slips into a barbed clip on the fixed-part of the stalk. I called this the #5 trace. It's the bottom most trace on the installed stalk (it's the trace that connects to the 4-pin connector, as opposed to the one on the two-pin connector -- the "cable" has 6 traces in all).
I am now thinking of buying some 6+ conductor 28ga stranded ribbon cable -- e.g. from Radio Shack -- and replacing the VW "cable" with that. That will be fun! haha. But it will serve as a proof of concept, and should also enable the CC for some time. If it works, I hope I can still return the "new" stalk for credit.
At any rate, I'm fairly confident that this is the problem. The switch operating the #5 trace is "open" to disengage the CC, so right now, my CC is always in "disengage" mode. If I can bypass even that one fault, I'm willing to bet our CC will work (especially since with the new one, we can get it to work with the right blinker on and the high beams on. If you see a white golf coming down the road signaling a right turn and having the highbeams on, you'll know we're 'cruisin').
Adrian
Chapel Hill, NC.