Hi Celly;
I went to a hardware store and picked up a small bolt and nut.
I think it was a
10X32 about
5/8ths inch long.
I pulled out the actuator and placed the head of the bolt inside the actuator holding clip (There might be a piece of the old rivet remaining, just drive it out with something small and you will see the mounting hole on the retainer clip). You will need to pull the actuator
out of the retaining clip and put the bolt in with the threads protruding out. I remember it was a real pain to get the 10X32 to stay in there. When I think of it now I would have
placed a piece of tape over the head of the bolt head to hold it in place. Getting the actuator back on the retaining clip is pretty annoying. The retaining clip is a real
S.O.B. to try and spread apart again. I learned a little trick to make it easier to get it back on. First examine the actuator buy pulling up the thin rubber guard and note how it is mounted to the clip. You will see
two small shallow round dowel like things sticking up on the side of the
actuator body.The retaining clip snaps over the little shallow round protruding things on the actuator body, I do not know what they are called but you will see them when you take a peek at how it mounts on. While getting overly annoyed I ripped of the thin rubber water proofing boot and have not had a problem at all. The rubber boot works against you when you are trying to see where the little round shallow protruding things are at that I mentioned earlier.
You want the threads of the small bolt protruding out so you can push it through the original hole where the rivet used to be on the outer side of the door.
Once I got the threads to protrude out of the hole I quickly put a
thin free running 10 X 32 nut on.
Do not use a lock nut..you will be battling with the bolt spinning around and working against you. You might want to put a little
locktite on the threads.. I did not ...I just made sure it was very tight. I check the tightness now and then and it has never been loose.
I wish I could give you the exact size of the bolt and length but it has slipped my mind. I am quite sure it was a 10 X 32 5/8ths inch long and a
thin free running 10 X 32 nut.
When you are holding the actuator and retaining clip in your hand you will know exactly what you need. Just do not get too long of a bolt because when you mount it all back together and the threads are running through the nut and is
pushing against the door you are going to need to do the work all over again and I know you will not want to do that !!...
I did not laugh too much when it happened to me and had to put in a shorter bolt.
Just use your judgement and think of keeping the length as short as you possibly can and have enough length to get it through the hole and mounted.
If worse comes to worse you can always file down the length to make up for the clearance you need for the door to close properly.
The rivet is pretty big and you will need a heavy duty rivet gun and you will need a hand having someone holding the actuator and another trying to pop the large rivet.
Good Luck...I hope this helps.
Rick
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