guruerror

I'm having an issue where the driver's door has stopped locking. I can hear the actuator moving but the door does not lock.

I popped the door panel off and found the actuator was loose and flopping around. It appears to be functioning fine (as it moves when the door lock/unlock button is pressed), but since it is not attached to anything, it doesn't have the leverage necessary to move the locking mechanism.

Due to the cramped conditions I couldn't tell exactly how the unit is suppose to mount so I disconnected the electrical connection and removed it from the door for further inspection and research.

Does anyone have knowledge of how the actuator mounts? There are two torx bolts on the back of the unit but they do not appear to have been attached to (or through) anything. From the exploded GM parts diagrams I would assume that the actuator is suppose to attach to the locking mechanism, but I can't confirm.

My next course of action was going to be pulling the actual locking mechanism out to get a closer look at it, but I thought I'd post here first in case someone had some guidance.

Thanks in advance.

guruerror

I found some videos on YouTube showing the removal of the actuator from a Silverado.

It would appear that the two torx bolts on the back of the actuator actually ARE used to attach the actuator to the lock mechanism. Since the bolts are still in my actuator, I'm betting that when I pull the locking mechanism out I'll find the mounting holes on it have broken.

Fatdog2

This happened on my 93 bird but the rod itself fell out of the thing that moves the door lock.The plastic thing at the end of the rod was bad,so I took it off,did some tweeking,and it worked after that.Hope this helps.

Injuneer

The factory manual does not really detail how the actuator is attached.

michaelzilinski

Like fatdog said it's probably little plastic piece that the rod snaps into is broken or the rod came out of it, try to look at the other end of the rod to see what it looks like then feel around with your hand and see if you can re clip it or see if it's broken. . Hope you get it fixed.

Injuneer

He already found the source of the problem - the actuator mechanism itself has fallen off the door. As he notes, the linkage functions correctly. He is looking for the correct way to reattach the actuator to the door.

michaelzilinski

I just thought about this, if you want to take it out, the actual lock cylinder that you put your key into to unlock your door it is held on by a c-clip on the inside of the door, and the actual electronic locking actuator is part of the door latch, and it's all connected with those rods. Hope this helps too, sorry I got ahead of my self on my first post.