Has anyone ever retrofitted power locks to a van without them? How easy / hard would this be?

 

never have but i really want to. im sick of walking around the thing locking everything up. not that i have a whole lot of vaulables, i still dont need em stolen. id assume it would be kind of pricey if if you bought all new actuators though. becuase you have 3 doors and the hatch to install. and there might even be some custom work in doing it. i was thinking about getting one of those shave doorhandle kits that will pop the door open for me with a push of a button. even though i havnt shaved the handles, it would be cool. you could open the door for a date without having to be on that side . i was also thinking about a power opening/closing side door. any ideas? the only one i would have is a pully and cable system rigged to a window motor or somthing stronger, not sure. i thought it looked cool on the new minivans and i figured it would be a really fun feature to show my friends. let me know some ideas. thanks

 

i used a power door lock kit with remotes that i bought on ebay, came with a set of four, very simple install, it was just a normal lock kit for a four door car. came with all actuators, wiring, and remotes, took about 2 hours to put in.

 

as for the sliding door, did you simply use the two existing contacts, or add your own? Also, did the kit come with complete enough instructions, and everything needed for installation?

 

I put a kit in my van about a year ago. It was $40 CDN on sale at Princess Auto (equal to Harbor Freight?). It was designed to unlock all the doors when the master (driver's) door was unlocked, and lock all doors when the master was locked. It did not have any switches. I bought four surplus power lock switches (illuminated) at the same place for 4 bucks each - one for each front door, one just behind the sliding door, and one just inside the hatch.

The kit was fairly easy to install. I had to fabricate some brackets to mount the motors and bend the rods to connect them to the lock *****. The kit wiring was straightforward - all the components were plug-in and it only required a power & ground connection. The kit had provision for external control, but the broken-English directions were a little hard to decipher.

The sliding door was the most difficult to wire. I ended up using the contact buttons in the door jamb to connect the motor wires. The contacts (two in my van, but there are holes for four) are used for the "door open" light in the instrument panel. There is a plunger switch further down the post for the dome lights. I pried the rubber grommets out the door post and jumpered the existing wires together. The downside to using the contacts in the pillar is that the motor only operates when the door is closed, but we know this quirk and just deal with it. I also had to reverse the wires on this motor because this motor extends to lock and retracts to unlock.

I considered using a coiled cord (phone cord) to wire the motor in the sliding door so it would be powered all the time, but the wires are too fine and I figured the cord would end up getting tangled or cut. I am not sure about other minivans, but Dodge minivans use a small flexible cable carrier track in the door well to run wires into the door. It's a neat system, but I think it would be too hard to retrofit and conceal.

I had a hard time deciding where to mount the switches in the front doors. I put them just ahead of the pull handles. The panels are curved at that location, so the switches don't sit exactly flat, but it's not too noticeable. I considered putting the switches in the flat panel under the arm rest, but figured it would be too awkward to reach. Apparently the engineers at Ford didn't think so, 'cuz that's where they put them. The ergonomics folks must have left early that Friday.

I spent about eight hours installing the system and have been really happy with it.

Good luck with your project.

Cheers,
Eric

 

pretty much the same thing i did, except, i did use a coiled cable, and my doors unlock when either of the front doors are unlocked.

 

I used the $40 kit from princess auto and added one main switch on drivers door so all doors dont unlock every time you open the drivers side,,,,,total time about 2 hours and well worth the effort..best money i have spent on this van

 

they have sahve doorhandle kits for about the same price as power locks. i might just get that and that way i could open a door for a girl with style. any good ideas? i know i wont have power locks but if i could rig the 35lb solenoid up to the inner handle, it would unlock itself when i press the button. correct? just trying to pimp out my ride is all. ill shave the handles when i get the time. any advice would help a lot

 

Please explain this a little further:


The sliding door was the most difficult to wire. I ended up using the contact buttons in the door jamb to connect the motor wires. The contacts (two in my van, but there are holes for four) are used for the "door open" light in the instrument panel. There is a plunger switch further down the post for the dome lights. I pried the rubber grommets out the door post and jumpered the existing wires together. The downside to using the contacts in the pillar is that the motor only operates when the door is closed, but we know this quirk and just deal with it. I also had to reverse the wires on this motor because this motor extends to lock and retracts to unlock.

 

How did you do you the following:

pretty much the same thing i did, except, i did use a coiled cable, and my doors unlock when either of the front doors are unlocked.

 

My van had factory power locks, but I did replace the rear door struts with linear actuators and added a solenoid to the hatch release. When wired with a timed relay you push the button that starts it and trips the solenoid to unlatch the door and the actuators lift it to full height.

the pain is, when the battery's dead so is the door 'cause the actuators won't budge. I'm changeing the actuators out for small air cylinders sence I put the airbags in and have an onboard air supply. At least then I could open a bleed valve and free stroke the cylinders up.

If you add power door locks, go to the bone yard and get some more contacts for the sliding door and save the trouble.

 

My van has brass button contacts (about 1/2" diam) in rubber grommets (about 1-1/4" diam). There are two of them low on the door pillar just behind the front seat seatbelt retractor. There are mating contacts on the front edge of the sliding door. In the door, there was a jumper that connected the two contacts together, hence closing the circuit when the door was closed.

I pried the gromments out of the pillar, disconnected the factory wiring and jumpered them together to constantly simulate the door being closed. The wires on these contacts in the pillar are used in the door open circuit (dash light only). The dome light is controlled by a plunger switch further down the pillar.

I attached the wiring from the control box to the contacts in the pillar. I wired the lock motor leads to the mating contacts in the door. With this arrangement the lock motor is only connected when the door is closed and the contacts... well, contact.

There is provision for another two contacts, but these holes just have rubber plugs. I considered going to the junkyard to get some more contacts so I could reconnect the door open circuit, but it hasn't been a big deal.

The only "easy" way to get the lock motor to function when the door is open is to run two wires to the sliding door that are connected all the time. A coiled cord (like a phone handset cord) has the advantage of retracting itself so it stays out of harm's way. In cold climates, though, plastic insulation tends to get stiff and retractile cords don't function anymore. Plus I thought the cord hanging there might look kinda ugly. These were the main reasons I didn't bother hooking one up (I bought a cord, but thought it through before I connected it).

Dodge Caravans use a plastic link chain to carry wires into the sliding doors. It slides under a cover in the footwell. Dunno about other vans with sliding doors. I considered using one of these (the industrial versions are surprisingly inexpensive), but I thought it was the icing the cake didn't really need. Plus it would grind back and forth through the grime and sand that collects in the footwell during a snowbelt winter, and again it would be visible.

I hope this clarifies things.

Cheers,
Eric

 

Yes, thanks...the issue of only working when the door is closed is not a problem. I was planning to simply wire everything in, but instead of using switches, I was planning to wire it into a keyless entry system, or alarm with keyless entry, and passive arming, to lock the doors AFTER they are closed, anyway...I just wasn't sure, exactly, how to wire into the contacts.

 

That's a great idea! Too bad I don't have any sort of remote for this van...

Cheers,
Eric