With the help of everyone's knowledge here I did all four of mine in an hour. Took a minute to get out and 5 minutes to get back in. I used a soldering iron to melt the heads of the rivets to open it, folded a piece of foil over the resistor, zip tied the case closed and remelted the plastic rivets to keep it solid. Way more difficult getting them back in than out with the slit trick! THANKS EVERYONE!

 

Thank You!!! Got mone fixed today!

 

1999 F250 SD V10............After several years without door locks I can lock and unlock the passenger door without reaching across the seat. This fix is so neat!!! Take your time and think it thru as you go so you don't forget something when you put your door back together. After you put the actuator back together use a razor blade knife to flatten the tip of the plastic rivet flush with the Actuator case to make it easier to drill pilot holes. I drilled one hole and put one screw in at a time. I used a #6 x5/8" screw. Only one screw really went thru the back side of the actuator. I used a file to trim off the point. Thanks for posting this self help tip! Cheap fix....it cost me $1.08 for screws.

 

I have not been on FTE in a long time. My door locks are ackting up and decided to come back and see if I can find a fix. Well here it is! Dang glad I found this and thanx for the pic's and all the info. I 'm gonna jump on this next week!

 

You may have a problem with one of the nuts that hold the door handle. You have to disconnect the window track to swing it out of he way to remove it. Looking at the inside of the door the bolt that holds the track is on the botom left side. I is an 11mm bolt with a washer. Don't worrry the track will swing back to reinstall.

 

If you have resistance to turning the key, your key may be worn out. You can take the passenger door cylinder to a locksmith to have a key cut by the number on the cylinder. Otherwise, you may just need lube in the cylinder.
You could try spraying electrical contact cleaner into the door on the cylinder, too.

 

THANKS FTE: great fix! one down , and one to go. My rear hatch now locks on my Ex. Reps to the OP

 

This is the best forum on the web! I did this today to all for doors on my 01 f250 SD. The first one took an hour for me to get finished because I like to pay attention on how things come apart. The other three took me about 20-30 minutes each. Thank you so much for all of the knowledge on here!

 

Very appreciative of this post. Thanks Jonathan! Did my truck to see if I could do it, then did my father-in-law's rig. Blew him away! His extended cab had both locks out of commission.

Pulling off the outside door handle really helps. There's a youtube variant of this procedure that does not pull the handle - much harder to release all the rods and get that actuator out. Nice to be able to leave some of the rods connected.

 

Thanks for the pictures and especially the little slit trick. It only took a couple of minutes to get my bad actuator out once the door panel was off. I also did not take the door handle off, just the inside door panel. The slit trick was the ticket! I pulled the actuator apart but decided to try out the new units from ebay. They look like a redesigned unit from what I have now. If they do work out, you can't beat $40 shipped for all four doors!

4 Ford Door Lock Actuators 2 Left 2 Right New | eBay

 

Chipworkz, thanks for that info. I just ordered them and can't believe how cheap they are! I paid $70.00 plus dollars for one at the dealer! Now I only hope they work well, they look fine and I just happen to need one for the driver door now.

 

So I just fixed both my back doors with the actuators from the link I posted above. They are made in China but seem like decent quality. The one thing to note though, is they are much harder to manually lock or unlock the doors. The original actuators had some free play in them but these do not. Manually locking and unlocking the door moves the internal motor assembly so it makes it much harder. If this bothers you then these are not for you. At $10 a piece, I can live with it.

The first door I did was a real pain to get it back on. The slit trick made getting it off really easy but getting the first one back on was a real pain. I only took off the inside door panel and not the door handle as the OP did. With the slit trick, I don't see any reason to take off the door handle. If you take your time and look into the door, you will see how it attaches. Then it is just a matter of feel. Like I said the first one was not fun until I figured our how to line it up and get it on. In the end, it is pretty easy. You just need to get the electrical connector on and then use one hand to slide it on the top and bottom mounts. Once it is started, you need to line up the pin as you continue to slide it on. Once the pin is lined up and in, then just reach in with both hands (palms facing towards the inside of the door) and evenly press on the top and bottom of the actuator to slide it the rest of the way on. You may need to rock it a little bit to get it past the locking tab. Once you think it is all the way on, make sure you try to slide it back off to ensure the locking clip is set. Yes it sucks when you think it was all the way on and it slides back off so you have to start all over again.

This is one of those things that is hard to do until you just do it and get the feel for it. The 2nd door took me 20 minutes start to finish. Meaning opening the door to closing it when I was done. I spent $40 bucks for the 4 and only had to do my back doors so I still have 2 spares. Dive in, scrap some knuckles on the first door and enjoying working locks again.

 

Oh man this was a life saver! My thanks to the OP, great write up! Did the first of four today when the race was Red Flagged, will be so nice to have PDL's again!

 

Why not? 1st post here go easy on me.

 

Why not what? You might want to give more details in posts 2 and beyond or at least quote what you are referring to.