Door lock shenanigans fix with pix

[Salonika]

Thanks Mr Ed for posting this thread. My door locks haven't worked right in over 10 years. I heard about this repair a few years ago but I've been fixing other stuff and never had time. This post motivated me to finally do it. Fortunately I've been sitting on an actuator I got from the salvage yard a long time ago and the bumpers in it were mint. Threw it in and presto door locks fixed. This then allowed me to hook up a keyless entry unit I've also had for a few years but couldn't program because of locks jumping. Montero now has normally operating locks and keyless entry for the first time. It's going to be like a brand new truck now. Thanks again for the motivation.
Oh yeah one last bit of tech, because I had two units side by side, one good and one bad, I could visually see the difference in degree of movement between the two without even taking them apart. Now that I know, I could easily diagnose what's going on inside without opening one up. The arm on the bad one had more degrees of travel by far.

 

[Painted Mountain]

Perfect fix! Thank you for the excellent photos!!

Bought this rig recently and found out about this the hard way. I was a mile down our dirt road from the house on a test drive. I stopped to check something out, jumped out of the car, closed the door and BAM she locked me out. Parked in the middle of the road!! Cell phone inside no less . The only saving grace was I turned off the engine. I ran home that mile in a foot of snow and freezing weather jumping fences and plowing through sage brush in sneakers...

Now I can finally relax :ylsmoke:

 

[Salonika]

For those who have performed this repair, can you please provide specifics on the material that you used to make / repair the bumpstops? My repair failed. I opened it back up and it looks just like it did the first time around, the bump stops are like slime. I'm guessing the material needs to be something somewhat soft otherwise the gears might get damaged. I was thinking of using some kind of rubber, like from a hose maybe.

Interestingly enough, this time around I found a new one for sale, shipping from China for $32 (via Amazon). I swear nothing was available the last time this happened, that's why I attempted a repair. The replacement part will take a month to get here so I still want to attempt a temporary repair.

 

[Salonika]

Update: I ended up using old windshield wiper blade rubber to remake the bump stops inside the actuator. I cemented them in place with JB Weld. The wiper rubber is very tough so I'm guessing this repair will hold up for a long time. Locks work perfectly now along with keyless entry.

 

[nwoods]

Update: I ended up using old windshield wiper blade rubber to remake the bump stops inside the actuator. I cemented them in place with JB Weld. The wiper rubber is very tough so I'm guessing this repair will hold up for a long time. Locks work perfectly now along with keyless entry.

That's pretty ingenious. Smart use of materials!

 

[Salonika]

My repair is holding up nicely but I did also receive the new unit I bought from China (Amazon). It is the LH unit in the photo. It will stay in my parts reserve until my repaired unit fails. They clearly modified the design a bit, the action movement feels cheaper (as expected). The biggest negative though is that the arm does not have the same degrees of travel as the Mitsu unit. Not sure if this will be a problem. It equates to about 1/4" less overall travel. I won't know if it will work until mine dies, so hopefully that is a long time.

 

[mr_ed]

Shoot it's been so long since I was in the door, but I don't think that 1/4" difference will make a difference. That whole setup in there, with the little plastic rod-end clamps and the flimsy pushrods, has so much inherent slop I think you'll probably be good with the China unit.

Only aspect of that system that seemed overly sensitive to throw was the switch with the bumpstops.


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[airbox]

Another one! I'm at sector in Seattle.

My locking switch on the drivers door doesn't lock. It will unlock the whole car, but no function when unlocking. Think it's the same motor or is it maybe the switch itself? Sorry, should probably do some googling first.

 

[Salonika]

Need more detail on what exactly your problem is. You said "It will unlock the whole car, but no function when unlocking"??

 

[airbox]

The rocker switch works when you press lock, but not for unlock. I think i may just keep my eyes open for a new switch at a yard. Not that big of a deal, i can unlock from the outside door lock.

 

[mr_ed]

I would bet your bumpstops are shot. Worth a look anyway. IIRC when I was replacing mine, I tried cycling the locks with the bumpstops completely removed and it would hang up at the end of the throw cuz the lever would overthrow itself due to no bumpstop and then the switch would no longer work electrically.


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[Mazdax605]

Okay guys. I am the new owner of a cool 00 Montero. The passengers side lock does the unlock/lock dance, but not any of the others. I was thinking it was that side actuator, and was going to dig into that door. Now reading this it seems that the drivers side is the culprit, but I don't see how that is. Only the passengers side front lock on my truck has issues. Wouldn't it seem that is the problem?

 

[otiswesty]

My door locks were bouncing and I luckily found this thread. I have a 96 Montero LS that we bought new way back when...

Any ways, I thought I would share, I was able to get the case open using a metal spackling tool. I made the new bumpers out of clear rubberized door stops you can buy at Ace hardware. They needed to be trimmed down a little with a razor blade, but work great. The adhesive backing held them in place quite well and I reinforced it on the top with some epoxy that I used to glue the case closed as well. All fixed.

I currently have 242k miles on the truck and it is still completely stock. Lots of little stuff breaking lately, like window switches, dash bulbs, cargo door hinges and so on.

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[otiswesty]

Did the passenger side today, it failed not long after I fixed the driver side
Here's the before pic showing the degraded rubber stoppers