Clock Spring / Spiral Cable Going Out?

Don't think so. I believe I looked it up when it first started.

 

Maybe try taking the cruise control stalk apart and spraying it out with contact cleaner

 

Another issue with the multimeter approach is that this problem is very intermittent. I drove into work this morning and the cruise worked perfectly for the entire trip. I could engage, disengage the cruise, and the indicator light came on and off like normal. Yesterday - nada. What if I take everything apart and its a day/time when the cruise would be working randomly? I don't see how that would help. The only way I see a multimeter helping me is if I happen to catch the circuit when its having a poor connection or no connection. Seems pretty difficult to predict....

And I think the intermittent nature of this problem eliminates a blown fuse.

Does anyone know if its possible to have certain connections on the spiral cable / clock spring fail while other connections remain perfect?

 

There is no fuse for the cruise control.

Yes, it's possible for only 1 wire in the spiral cable to break.

Intermittent problems are a techs worst nightmare. Inevitably, the problem will not exist when the tech has it. They can keep it for a week and it will be problem free, but give it back to the customer and it will fail that very day. It's impossible to correctly diagnose a problem if everything is working.

In my opinion, the best thing to do next would be wait for it to fail and then hold the CC switch in, rotate the steering wheel and watch for the cruise light to come on. That would confirm a bad spiral cable.

 

I tried your troubleshooting method, and got some weird results. Last night at the start of a short trip, it didn't come on with the first few attempts. Then I tried holding it as best I could while turning the steering wheel, and it came on. Worked fine the rest of the trip AND the trip back home. I'll keep testing it over the next couple weeks and see what I can learn.

 

My clock spring went bad and my horn stopped working. Checked fuses to come to the conclusion clock spring was bad. Went to warranty manual and this was not covered... but wait the warranty on the air bag and seat belts is different than the horn. Clock spring connects air bag. I went to dealer and gave the wink wink air bag not working due to clock spring. Boom dealer fixed for free!!!! Hope you get it figured out.

 

UPDATE:
Replaced the clock spring with the Standard Motors part for about $165.
https://www.rockauto.com/?carcode=1441488&parttype=10480

Followed this write up to perform the work.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2nd-gen-clockspring-replacement-how-to.106114/#post-2023852

Cruise/horn/radio controls all work perfectly now.

This was the only thing I could find wrong with mine. Just this tiny little spot.

 

It may or may not have been that spot. The key, is if the trace is even cracked inside the insulation, then it won't conduct. It can be ugly and scraped, yet still conduct, and it can be pretty and clean, yet broken. Mine has absolutely no visible signs of a bad trace, and yet one of the traces (the one for the horn) is broken. Rather than buying an expensive replacement, I just hijacked a different trace that was unused. The neat thing about the ones with 2 ribbons is that only I think 2 or maybe 3 traces are in use on the second ribbon, so there are spares. In any case, horn is safety equipment so its important to have it working, regardless of how you accomplish it.