Back door power lock actuator

[BrianX128]

So now that all my woes appear to be taken care of except my occasional power steering drip in the other thread, I'm on to something else less significant but that makes leaving anything in the truck stressing. The back drivers side power lock does not work, and furthermore the little black pushing rod to manually lock and unlock is totally gone from the metal piece under the door frame.

I managed to spray a boatload of wd40 in there and that did nothing. Doesn't act like it is getting power of the little motor is shot. I was able to lock the door by putting a flat head screw driver in the door hole claw retaining.. I have no idea what it is called. Place the door shuts on to the rod you have to adjust when your doors start wobbling down the road. It looks like a tiny pry bar in there and if I push up on it my door will stay shut, and to open it I have to roll the window down and take same screw driver and put it through top of window hole and then pry up on the rod that would have had the black push button to manually lock and unlock the doors.

Question is, if I wanted to test whether I'm just not getting power to that actuator, could I just hook a test light onto the two wires going into said back door and press the button and see if it lights up or not when I press it? Not sure how to test it. Wouldn't even care if it didn't work if the manual button existed out of the top of the door. Even weirder it stays locked even when pulling be handle inside when locked by screwdriver method, although maybe that's some sort of child protect feature and the back seat doesn't open when you pull the handle.

Thoughts? For now I'm just gonna manually lock it via screwdriver so I can go shopping and leave stuff in it for fear of being stolen. I work near a bad part of Pittsburgh and I'd also rather not find my stereo missing someday either.

 

[icanfixall]

Oh what fun is ahead of you. The door panel must come off. Then look at the back of the door down low. See the rivet about 1/2 inch diameter... Well that must be removed for the lock actuator to come out. I have ground them off. Drilled them out and used a cold chisel and hammer to cut them off. Your choice. Once that is off then you get to feel up where the motor rod connects to lock or unlock the door. Usually its a yellow plastic clip that is a marvel of engineering to remove. What happens in the electric motor gets water in it because the rubber seal fails. The motors are all the same but.. That rod is different on the front doors from the back doors. BTW you can remove the rod too but be careful. That small clip needs to be removed. Then you lift up the small cap but under that cap is three of the tinest balls you have ever seen. Those act as the driver to send the rod up or down to open or close the door. No going back togehter is even harder. I found using a 1/2x20 bolt and nut works best. You stick the bolt thru the bracket and use some duct tape or electrical tape to make sure it stays in place. then feel for the hole in the door and hope you find it. When the bolt sticks thru put the nut on it and tighten. Hopefully the nut and bolt will stay in place and not just spin and never get tight. Like I said.. Ruff job but doable none the less. I bet I have done 12 of them so far. Call Ford before you walk in to inquire the price.. then shop the wrecking yards and take no prisoners cause you have to feed em...

 

[OLDBULL8]

The threaded rod that the manual knob threads onto, the knob has to be on there, other wise the rod will tilt sideways and catch, then your power lock/unlock won't work. Had the same problem on my 92. WD40 is not a lubricant, PB Blaster works better there or any kind of spray lube, spray the hell out of it and work the lock up and down. Ya have to remove the trim panel and spray thru one of the holes close to the lock. Get a trim panel removal tool.

 

[IDIoit]

the actuator does have a rubber boot on the top,
you may have saved some rust issues 10 years from now, but you missed the source

i have a few that are old and laggy,
gotta hit the switch a few times for it to lock.
looking forward to fixing them!

 

[OLDBULL8]

This from an 89 manual. Might help to see what you have.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Added some other pics. Check my #5 post again.

 

[BrianX128]

I might have gotten lucky after a lot of wd40 and manually prying the mechanism back and forth and spraying more and more I was about to give up and start the eBay search for a new or used actuator and so I moved it to lock and shut the door. Put the truck back to its spot and was walking away and saw I forgot some tools and hit the unlock button and I heard it move and sure enough it has now started to unlock.

Locking is another story that seems to happen once every five times successfully but I'm hoping with more wd40 or whatever I spray in there I can revive it. At least now if I press the button back and forth five times real quick I can actually lock all of my doors. I do think I'm gonna have to get myself the top part that protrudes out the back door that connects to the rod inside the door for manually operating the locks as I think it's having a hard time locking because of how things are hanging in there but I'm hoping if I overly lube everything up it will reduce the friction enough that things operate at least half the time normally.