1981 Power Door Locks Suddenly Dead
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 293
Likes: 6
From: Santa Ana CA
1981 Power Door Locks Suddenly Dead
Im away from home right now, so dont have my shop manuals accessible.
Power door locks always worked fine. Sluggish, but locked and unlocked the doors fine for years. Today, seems there is no sign of power going to the locks. No click, no noise, nothing.
I checked the fuse that I think controls the door locks (CTSY 20a I believe), and its fine.
Any ideas on where to start trouble shooting this?
Power door locks always worked fine. Sluggish, but locked and unlocked the doors fine for years. Today, seems there is no sign of power going to the locks. No click, no noise, nothing.
I checked the fuse that I think controls the door locks (CTSY 20a I believe), and its fine.
Any ideas on where to start trouble shooting this?
Pro
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 567
Likes: 82
From: Auckland
Im away from home right now, so dont have my shop manuals accessible.
Power door locks always worked fine. Sluggish, but locked and unlocked the doors fine for years. Today, seems there is no sign of power going to the locks. No click, no noise, nothing.
I checked the fuse that I think controls the door locks (CTSY 20a I believe), and its fine.
Any ideas on where to start trouble shooting this?
Power door locks always worked fine. Sluggish, but locked and unlocked the doors fine for years. Today, seems there is no sign of power going to the locks. No click, no noise, nothing.
I checked the fuse that I think controls the door locks (CTSY 20a I believe), and its fine.
Any ideas on where to start trouble shooting this?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,837
Likes: 1,028
That plug on the back of the switch is a bad design. New ones are available.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 293
Likes: 6
From: Santa Ana CA
I ordered 2 replacements, changed the driver side switch first, and sure enough the locks worked immediately once that one switch was replaced.
Thanks for the all the great advice.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,206
Likes: 365
From: The Motor City
You may have noticed a green, almost mold-like hue in the switch connectors. It is the normal corrosion due to the copper-on-copper design. It was pretty nasty looking. Our suppliers on the forum sell replacement pigtails. I used a dielectric grease at the connection to help arrest the natural corrosion.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 5,236
Likes: 898
From: Myrtle Beach SC
Power door locks always worked fine. Sluggish, but locked and unlocked the doors fine for years. Today, seems there is no sign of power going to the locks. No click, no noise, nothing.
I checked the fuse that I think controls the door locks (CTSY 20a I believe), and its fine. Any ideas on where to start trouble shooting this?
I checked the fuse that I think controls the door locks (CTSY 20a I believe), and its fine. Any ideas on where to start trouble shooting this?
It may well be time to conduct some serious servicing of those units from the switch to the actuator to the linkage. I found with my 78, that gunk needed to be removed from linkage arms, actuator replaced and even the switch had frayed wires...rendering it unusuable.
This article is dated but explains the process for restoring the "power" function to the RPO AU3 Power Door Lock option.
Hope this helps!
Door Lock Repair
