Interior and Upholstery Can't lock doors

emba129

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Jun 10, 2012
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I cannot lock the doors on my 93 Cobra. When I actuate the power doorlock switches I can hear the actuators trying to lock the doors on both sides. Each side moves slightly but will not go down. I tried to manually lock them on each side with the key and cannot turn either side .. and lastly, I cannot push peg on the top of the door down either on either side.

Do I assume bad door lock actuators? on both sides? Even though I can hear each side trying to lock each door? Im gonna pulled the panel to investigate. I figured if the actuators were dead this would be the symptom.

Thanks
Chris
 
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It’s likely the actuators. Unhook one and see if the knob works. The last one that siezed up on the passenger side got slow and weak, then stuck in the locked position. Between turning the key and my assistant pulling in the knob, we pulled the solenoid out of the bracket. It locked and unlocked manually fine after that.
 
Damn straight the actuators are both seized
They are a tad expensive (about 125 each from Ford)
Punch the center out of the rivet before you drill it out (makes it easier)
You can do this as a test
Punch and drill both rivets in both doors. That will allow you to lock the doors but your actuators will be hanging and banging
 
Before you drill out the bracket rivet, see if you can wiggle the actuator and bushings out of the bracket. If the bracket is fine, it makes installing repro ones quicker.
New ones will not last like they should. See post #6 here for jrichker’s better repair.

 
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I got door actuators for my car from LMR about a year ago. They are still working strong. +1 on using the original brackets. The old ones will pop out of them. No need to drill out that factory rivet on a real cobra.

If it was my car I'd rather hit the yard for every early 90s ford I could find to get oem actuators. I know for a fact the old escorts ( pre 95 ) used the same ones. The Tempo was another one. You can test them with a 9v battery.
 
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The new Ford actuators come with a bracket and a new rivet
I have half assed them and left the bracket on the door and just swapped out the actuator before too
IMHO they are loose after doing this but remain tight if you leave the factory bracket in place
As far as dorman goes they may fall right the hell off