Power Door Lock Actuator -- How To?

MikeKanterakis

SCCoA Member
The door lock switch still functions, but the driver's side door lock will not actuate.

I took off the door panel and inspected. It seems that the actuator (covered with a rubber boot) is loose. Sticking up from the boot is a thin metal rod that goes up to the 'point of axis' where the door lock (visible silver tab) and the door handle actuating rod join.

From what I saw, I need to swing up the actuator in the direction of the door hinge. However, the window guide is in the way.

Has anyone replaced one of these before? If so, any hints? If I have to loosen the window guide, what should I watch out for?

Thanks.
 
Heee heee heee you too?

I haven't actully pulled it yet, but the Haynes book shows that the "hook" fits into the bushing and to remove it will require it be rotated forward. If the rod won't clear, I imagine that you'll have to take the 3 screws out holding the latch to the door frame to get some room. I'm going to take a look this evening.. mine has been rattling... rattles drive me nuts :p I finally narrowed it down to the locking solenoid. :cool:

As for loosening the window guide, just be sure you measure where it is first so that it goes precisely back into the same spot. The window itself will stay up. I say that.. but knowing the SC it probably ends up that you have to remove the window. :(
 
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yeah, maybe I'll just loosen that latch by removing the three screws. Although, I don't think that will give me the necessary clearance.... hum...
 
OK.. I did it.

You were correct. Loosening the 3 screws doesn't do any good. You have to take the window guide out, but as I have discovered, its very simple.. you take the bolt out of the bottom and then pull the bottom part of the guide towards the front of the door, then pull it down. There just a clip holding it to the top guide. Then, you can pull the actuator out and rotate it up to disconnect the pin. :D :cool:

I think I have my rattle solved. The actuator consists of a tiny motor, a simple centrifugal clutch, and some gears inside a plastic case that pull the lever up/down. Its not a coil like I thought it would be.The gears inside the motor had dried out and worn some and become loose and were rattling about. I greased everything up a bit and I think the problem is fixed. I had to drill the plastic corners out to get the case apart.

Here's what it looks like inside.. I'm sure everyone's dying to know. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 

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Awsome pic.

So, then is the lock mechanism supposed to be attached somewhere in the bottom of the door itself? When I was messing with it yesterday, it seemed like the mechanism was working, but it was just flopping around without actuating the lock.
 
The lock mechanism is part of the latch assembly at the center of the back edge of the door. There are 5 rods that hook up to the latch assembly: 2 rods work the the latch to open it, one from the inside door lever (also called the remote lever) and the other from the ouside handle. 3 rods control the lock part of the assembly from the key lock, the push button, and the actuator.

The actuator is at the very bottom of the door as you know and is held in its bracket by 2 nylon ring clips.. you pull the whole actuator forward to get it out.

If you have the Haynes manual, there's a diagram on page 11-12 that should show all this for the passenger side. Its a bit confusing to look at at first, but as you mess with it, it becomes clear... Takes a good flashlight, a mirror, and skinny arms. This thing is rather hard to get to. :)

If you shine the flashlight way to the back, and operate any of the locking rods, you should see somthing move on the latch assembly. Including the actuator. It should push the rod up and down about 1-2". If you take the lower channel out of the way, its easier to see.

Good luck. :)
 
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A few more pics. :D

The first shows the latch assembly in its locked position with the button rod (LH side of assembly) extended downwards and the actuator rod extended up.
The second shows the latch in the unlocked position with the button rod upwards and the actuator rod down.

The third shows what the actuator looks like installed. :cool: :D
 

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MikeKanterakis said:
it seemed like the mechanism was working, but it was just flopping around without actuating the lock.
I found out when trying to reinstall The thing that there are 2 nylon bushings which fit tightly inside a metal brace with a "<" shape on each side. It was a pain to get it installed and then I didn't have it seated. I pushed the electric lock button a bunch of time, and then the whole thing popped out again :( I had to push good to get it to click in place on both sides.
Here's a pic of what I'm talking about. The bushing is the white piece in the center of the mirror and yes, this one was a bit of a challenge to take. ;)
The angle in the pic is very misleading, it aligns up and down. There is a bushing on each side which can't bee seen. The bushings, when correct, snap into the 2 "<" arms of the brace.
 

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Arrrggg.... that wasn't the rattle..

Back to square 1.. All that fun and it wasn't even the problem.. I pounded on the door and listened for anything which was rattling and the ONLY thing making any noise at all was the stupid electric lock actuator. Did all the work described in the pictures, put it all back together and pounded some more.. everything sounded fine.. so I thought I had it.. WRONG!! :mad:

I'm running out of guesses here. Next thing I guess is maybe is not in the door, but rather in the B pillar somewhere.. This is starting to drive me batty :(
 
Wow, those are some Awsome pics. Thanks a million for posting those. Next, I'm going to see about re-attaching the actuator to the bottom of the door. I don't doubt that those plastic clips have seen there better days.

Hope you find that rattle.
 
MikeKanterakis said:
Hope you find that rattle.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.. it looks like the exhaust hanger just below the driver side door jamb. Even though its under the car frame, you can't believe how that sound travels up until it you'd swear it was in the door frame itself right at the rear edge of the glass. That's partly why I spent so much time chasing it. I even took the whole back seat out and side panel off trying to track it down and came up empty handed as nothing was loose :( :( But I think I now have it cornered. ;)
 
The guy that owned the '90 before we got it had an entire exhaust job done on the car. OMG!!! I could have rigged something up better than that, and I don't know how to wled. It's so damn fugly that you would swear it was pieced together from a couple of Topaz exhaust systems. These pipes are all rusty, and skinny as all heck. Needles to say, the car rattles in a few places when you take a right a little too fast. I hammered the rear muffler and bent a few other pieces in order to stop the rattling, but I only succeded in making the rattling quieter.
 
On mine, the hanger bracket is a simple rod which bolts to the frame. A sizeable hunk of rubber, with 2 holes bored through it, then connects that rod to a rod welded to the exhaust pipe. The bracket itself was "cushioned" from the frame by an impressive innovation known as 2-3 layers of duct tape. :rolleyes: Works for me... I just pulled the old dried hardened tape off and wrapped on some fresh duct tape and problem solved. :D .. Man, that was driving me nuts and its embarrasing when you have passengers in the car. :cool:

In a similar manner, one way I found it was by swerving slowly back-n-forth. When I was in the sharpest part of the swerve, the sound would stop momentarily due to the weight of the exhaust being shifted. :)
 
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Yeah... it's worse with your wife in the car... you can just see the look of dissapproval in her eyes. When it works, it's expected to work. When it has a problem, it's your fault... :(
 
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