Just did my dad's f150 today. I used metal duct tape this time and they are working great.

 

This repair really works! Took 3 hours to do 2 doors. The only change I made was to put a couple of small bolts in place of the old rivets. I then clamped the actuator housing back together with a peice of safety wire on the opposite end and a piece in the middle. Did not want to take the chance of screws interfering with the internal parts. Sounds hoaky, but quite affective.

 

Dude, nice spelling!!!

 

got any pictures of the process

 

There's a bunch of good ones about page #3 or so...

 

thanks for the page

 

Had a stuck "door ajar" switch that needed to be address. Did all the door locks this weekend using copper and cleaned and lubed all switches. Great mod. 4 doors now lock and no more door ajar lights!! Thanks for this.

 

Thanks for the post.

Another day . . . another useful post @ FTE.

Thanks also to the original poster. Now to go and fix one of the few things that bother me on my truck.

Gary

 

Did both doors on my '99 in about an hour and a half; the variation I tried involved drilling the plastic posts with a #31 drill and threading the holes for #6-48 screws. The copper pieces were clipped out with a pair of diagonal cutters and the door locks now actuate like "pow"!

Many thanks to the original genius(es) behind this fix

 

I did the $0.01 mod on one of my locks this weekend. Worked great. What I did to fasten it back together was: snip the plastic posts, Drill & insert fine thread drywall screws, then cut off the excess with a dremel.

 

I did this but for some reason my motor will only turn one way. It works great while hitting the lock button but nothing on the unlock. Whats goin on??
Thanks!

 

Thanks for the articles everyone. Just this last weekend I thought the aftermarket remote entry was failing, doors didn't all lock. Removed the remote and the locks still didn't work. Luckily I read the first READ ME before I bought new parts. I used a Torx 27 on the latch screws, T25 was close, but the 27 fits tighter. I used the $0.01 method also. I removed the bottom bolt from the window track to give me alot more room to remove the latch. Thanks again!

2001 True Blue Crew, V10

 

I have done three of mine so far. All that's left is the passenger rear, but "if it ain't broke....."

Both on the driver's side were done last year, without doing some of the things that subsequent posts have indicated to do. Before I did my third one this morning, I re-read the majority of the thread.

This morning's job was MUCH easier than the first two as a result of the following, more recent, tips:
1. Remove the interior door handle to eliminate having to disconnect the cable.
2. Remove the exterior handle to gain access to a couple of clips.
3. Take that lower track bolt out to give you more room to remove the assembly!

Thanks everybody for these additional tips. You made the job even easier!

BTW, I re-assembled the actuator by replacing the rivets with short 6-32 stainless screws, flat washers, and nuts with an EXTREMELY small amount of LocTite. I center-drilled the posts with a 3/32" drill and used quarter-inch long 4-40 stainless screws and washers. There is no need to tap threads into the hole first, as the screws self-tap very nicely. No LocTite here, as I don't know how this plastic reacts to LocTite (some plastic turns to dust on contact!).

Sure is nice to have a great collection of small stainless hardware!

Wish I had taken pictures, as it comes out very neat this way, and I'm confident that it's secure enough to not ever come apart by itself.

Again, my thanks for the newer tips, as well as to the original poster who initially thought this whole thing through!

Pop

 

Most Friday nights we go out to dinner with another couple with whom we're good friends. Last Friday evening I mentioned to the husband, who has a 7.3 2000 EX, that I had fixed my door lock actuator earlier that day. He mentions that his passenger-side front door also has quit dependably locking and unlocking. I tell him it's about time for them to start failing, and he mentions that he already had Ford replace a couple of them under his basic warranty a few years ago. I offer to fix his bad one for him (just to see how fast I COULD do one if organized). We decide that Tuesday (today) was a good day, and says he'll be over "around ten", despite it's been getting over 100 degrees here recently.

He arrives at around 10:45, and it's already hot out, but it's not going to get any cooler if we just sit around, so off we go to the driveway. Remember, I've just done this exact same door on mine last Friday.

He's flabbergasted how little time it takes to get the door panel off, as he's not had a door panel off since a Chrysler product around 1967. I've got the actuator in hand in about ten minutes.

SURPRISE! Remember he said he's had some of them replaced? Well, this is one of the "new-and-improved" actuators, which I've never seen before! A picture is below for those that haven't seen one.

This one comes apart easier, guys! Four small, Torx-headed screws hold it together, and the cover comes right off, revealing a different gear train inside, with a slightly larger motor. The motor shaft looks like it has some kind of clutch on it.

I pop the motor out of the shell, which is slightly more snug in its recess than the old style, but comes out just the same way, with two tiny connectors to pass current to it. Remove just the output shaft gear and set it aside so it doesn't fall off and get lost. Ignore the little white "clutch".

After using a felt pen marker to mark the motor body housing and the brush end of the motor (to reassemble correctly), it comes apart identically to the ones I'm more familiar with. The ones with the tough tiny-little crimped tab.

Sure enough, inside there's that familiar thermister that's gone high-value. I tried to wrap it with aluminum foil, but the springy connections to it are thicker and tougher on this motor than the old, and it rips the foil. So, I scrap the idea of the foil in favor of the penny and a pair of aviation snips. Perfect fit first time. This motor goes back together easier, too, and the re-crimp is the same. Put the small drive gear back on the motor shaft, drop the motor onto it's electrical connections, and screw the case back together.

That's all there is to the newer-style ones. Just be sure you have a small-enough Torx driver. I'll post the size of the necessary Torx bit, but it's not here in front of me, and it's late.

Total time, an hour flat, including finding my misplaced small Torx set and explaining myself every step of the way. I was happy with it.

Pop

 

Thanx guys that scared me cuz I just bought a 2000 f250 and had that happen I thought I was in for a truck with many more problems