Butters944

Alright, I have the pics of current progress. (If you wanna see all the pics at once, go to www.photobucket.com/944lock)

For driver's side actuator placement to be same as passengers, I traced it on paper and transferred where the holes go. Worked great.


Driver's side screwed in.




(Cool angle from above in the window crack)


Peeling back the insulation to reach the door jam hole.


Shoving wires through hole.


Unplugging the wires to get rid of crappy oversprayed bellows.



Had to tape the wires to a piece of thicker harder wire to push it through and into the door, kinda pain in the butt.


Had the wires go outside the speaker hole for worries of it dragging on the window mechanism.



All wired up! Now ready for the connector rod to the lock.


New old bellows for the door jam, has some awkward creases but who cares!

Butters944

Tonight was just a string of bad luck, and everything was breaking on me , but oh well...

First, before I even start, our roll up shop light thing comes unhooked and falls on my brother's car, putting a nice orange mark or two, and bending his radio antenna a little (unless it was already like that)...




Then I go to plug in my other light and the outlet cover falls off in my hand...


Then I start feeding the wires into the driver's door. They had just barely not enough slack, but I thought I MIGHT be able to get away with it if I tied them up and out of the way good:


After wiring the driver's side, and attaching and taping up all the connections, I realized I forgot to put on the bellows thing in the door jam.

Started un-taping the connections, and on the first one the connector breaks off on me.


Now that I look at it more, I really don't have enough slack on the wires, so I guess that wire breaking will provide motivation to just cut all the wires and extend them to make it correct and professional. Thank God fall break is next week, I will have lots of time to (hopefully) finish this S.O.A.B. up.

Funn944

On the Bulldog wireless that I added to my power door locks, there is another button that can be used for a trunk latch. I just need to add another relay to the remote unit and send power from there to the hatch wires in the drivers foot well......ta....da......wireless hatch latch. OH, BTW.....don't leave the remote with keys attached in the car with the windows up and then disconnect / reconnect the battery. THE DOORS WILL LOCK WITH THE KEY AND REMOTE IN THE CAR. Ask me how I know !!!!

Butters944

Haha, good tips. Too bad my hatch is completely manual...

Oh, and that's why you have 2 key sets.

DrZ1

Funny your posting this, I battled mine today as well.

I was redoing the actuator install that a stereo shop had done, since my actuators stopped working. The angle they installed them made it hard for the door lock to completly lock, and if you sqeezed the handle a few times it would open.

I used the DEI heavy duty actuators which seem to work well, but they attach to the door pin rod via a dual connector. I finally got it adusted so I could get a good stroke allowing good lock and unlocking. Once the door panel went on, I found I had to ajust some more because the door pin hole was restrictive as well.

It might have made it harder since I added the led door pins and had the pins close about level w/ the hole. If I had them further out, may not have as binding.

supes6

I would try to find a set of the OEM actuators.. those things last forever and at the rate these cars are being parted out I bet you could find a set for free. The aftermarket ones never seem to work quite as well and they tend to not last very long either.

Butters944

Too late for that, I guess. I suppose we'll find out how long mine last! And I can get new actuators on ebay for like $2...

Butters944

Finally got some organization going on with the project.

Got the wires zip-tied up along with the others in the area...



Plugged in the magic lock box and tucked it away under the side carpet...


Cleaned up the passenger side...


Added more wire to the drivers side...



It's smooth sailing from here. Just down to sourcing a power/ground somewhere, connecting the actuators to the locks, install door panels.

On another note, found this GPS holder thing at Ross for like $5. I think it looks pretty clean up there...

Butters944

FINISHED them last week, just got around to posting. IT WORKS GREAAT! I can click the lock/unlock from a hundred feet away. The sound is quick, but audible and satisfying. No issues at all.

Forgot to include pictures of the rod installation but it was pretty self-explanatory. I could post pics if you requested.

Medski

I've started to look into that since my door locks are bejaving weirdly. When I unlock from either door, both doors unlock, when I lock the passenger, both lock. However, when I lock from the driver side, only the driver side locks. ?? The central button on the console works fine.

Butters944

Interesting. My little kit is set up so my driver's door is the "master" lock. Anything that the driver's lock does the passenger's follows. But the passenger lock doesn't move the driver's with it. Almost seems like your locks have found themselves in reverse roles, and the passenger is behaving as the master lock.

Medski

You think it's 2 wires swapped by mistake?

Butters944

Completely unsure. Don't know enough about the stock power lock system...

odonnell

Great write up! I want to do this soon to my '83, as it has no central locking.

V2Rocket

I put power locks on my car years and years ago, total cost was $40 for 2 actuator kits from Fry's Electronics...couple hours to install, used a spare 944 sunroof switch as my lock/unlock.
Worked really well but the actuators died...just took them out, because I can reach the passenger door lock **** from the driver seat no problem