Door Lock Actuator Replacement

[mcm51]

A little history on the subject, my driver's side door lock stopped working when the car was about seven years old. being on the driver's side, I put up with it for many, many years. A couple years ago I found an Actuator on the internet, just what I was looking for, a Ford Service part (F5SZ-63218A43-A), complete with the blue and white box at a cost of over $100.........Well the main reason for today's post, this morning I put the actuator in and had trouble getting the factory rivet out that holds the actuator mounting bracket down against the door. Ended up with a little bigger hole than I wanted and could not go with a rivet to re-mount, so I used a shorty nut and bolt no problem, worked great. Put my inside door panel back on just to find out my actuator height is about 1/4 inch to low BUT it still works great just off position a little. I'll have to run like that till I feel like getting that door panel back off and probably just change it at the actuator clip mounting position...........Any members changing a door lock actuator might want to somehow mark the position of the actuator on the inside of the door in some manner before going at that rivet, so remounting it with a rivet or nut and bolt, you'll have your up and down height correct.......

[Alan H. Tast]

Good tip - thanks for posting. Did you get any pictures of this, i.e. the original vs replacement actuator, what it looks like before/after replacement, etc.? I'd love to take this and use it for a short tech article in the Scoop.

[mcm51]

No Alan, no pictures, that would have been a good ideal. See if I had known to pay attention to that height before hand, I would'nt have to go back in. Thank God it works great, just does'nt look quite right, little too low. But like I said, I think I'm low enough that one step up on that bracket adjustment, may end up putting me exactly where I need to be.........Always got a 2nd shot at those tech pics when I go back in, probably this fall after the summer heat..