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Attach the power lock actuator

JDCam

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Joined
January 24, 2010
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City, State
Barrie ON
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Explorer Sport 2Dr
Hello,
I see many great posts regarding power lock actuators. Great job guys.
I have a specific question question regarding how it attached to the door.

My passenger door power lock was not working. I could hear the actuator firing, but the door lock was not moving. When I took the doorskin off, I found the actuator was not attached. When the door lock is pressed, the actuator itself is moving up and down and not locking the door.

I have seen other detailed postings here that describe either a mounting clip or a rivit to hold it secure. I am not sure I have either.. let me describe what I see (sorry no photo)

the actuator has what appears to be a short threaded shaft sticking out. It lines up with a hole in the door panel and protrudes out just slightly. My first guess was that there is a small nut missing, but when I compare the driver side door, there is what appears to be a black rubber grommet in the same hole in the door. The whole in the door is slightly larger and likely would not support a nut or rivit. I dont want to take that side appart unless i have to.. but I am guessing it is some type of friction fit into the rubber.

What is this? and why is it different than what others describe.
2000 Explorer Sport 2Dr

Cam
 



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thank you Scucci.
I guess what looks like stud is the broken rivet. I assume I will need to drill it out and replace it.

Is this a common rivet you describe? Should any hardware store have it, or more of a specialty item... or a ford part..
 












Wait wait wait.

Describe the pin coming out of the side of the actuator again. There should be two pins, both near the bottom and on opposite sides. That picture in the other thread is very poor.

There is a bracket which is riveted to the door, which scucci described. The bracket has two slots in it which are for those two pins to go into. The pins should have a rubber grommet on each, and the grommets press down into the bracket slots.

Start by looking for the rivet head in the door, in the door jamb area at the back of the door. Either you still have it or it's gone and the bracket is laying in the bottom of the door. Find the bracket and make sure it's riveted to the door like new. Find the grommets that should go on the actuator pins, and put them on.

To install the actuator onto the bracket, first remove one part that is blocking access to it. There is a short window channel part in each door for the latch side of the glass. With that removed, it's easy to get to the actuator area. Only one bolt holds that channel in, it's an 11mm bolt I think. The bolt should be the bottom rear most bolt you see on the door panel face, about 6" or so from the corner. That channel will pull down out of the top part of the door, look at the top end and note where it goes up into. When it's back in, adjust that channel before tightening the bolt. With the window down, gently(light pressure) push(with ratchet/socket) the channel bolt forward towards the glass, and tighten the bolt. Good luck,
 






Had to wait for the weekend when there was some daylight to workwith.
Quite easy to repair. No problems.
The bracket was still on the actuator. Just drilled it out and replaced the rivet. Easy

Thanks for the help
 






Thanks for the info. I was experiencing the "latch spring" problem, and when I got everything apart, I discovered the rivet for the driver's door was sheared off. I didn't have time to muck with it tonight, but now thanks to this thread and others, I know what the fix is. Great info, and I'll follow-up once I've gotten the time to actually fix it.
 






Hello,
I see many great posts regarding power lock actuators. Great job guys.
I have a specific question question regarding how it attached to the door.

My passenger door power lock was not working. I could hear the actuator firing, but the door lock was not moving. When I took the doorskin off, I found the actuator was not attached. When the door lock is pressed, the actuator itself is moving up and down and not locking the door.

I have seen other detailed postings here that describe either a mounting clip or a rivit to hold it secure. I am not sure I have either.. let me describe what I see (sorry no photo)

the actuator has what appears to be a short threaded shaft sticking out. It lines up with a hole in the door panel and protrudes out just slightly. My first guess was that there is a small nut missing, but when I compare the driver side door, there is what appears to be a black rubber grommet in the same hole in the door. The whole in the door is slightly larger and likely would not support a nut or rivit. I dont want to take that side appart unless i have to.. but I am guessing it is some type of friction fit into the rubber.

What is this? and why is it different than what others describe.
2000 Explorer Sport 2Dr

Cam

IMG_9636.jpeg


IMG_9639.jpeg
 






This is what I did, I’m not very savvy at these forums so I hope my pics post with my reply here. I had to take the door panel off to get to the inside where the actuator is, and I simply held it up in place with the stud sticking through the hole and drilled an 8th inch hole right below where the stud is. I was very careful not to drill more than about a half inch in because once you’re through the bracket that is holding the actuator, you might accidentally drill into the actuator. So be very careful drilling through the door frame through the nylon bushing into the bracket through the bracket and that’s as far as you want to drill. Then I used a #8 sheet metal screw 1/2 “ and threaded it in and it’s holding the bracket very tightly and of course everything is working like new now. I did not have to remove the window bracket, that I have seen described in other posts. And since my bracket was still on the actuator, the only thing I had to do was to drill the hole, put the screw in to hold the actuator in place like the rivet used to. Good luck.

IMG_9636.jpeg


IMG_9639.jpeg
 






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