How to Replace Door Lock Actuator 1998-2003 Lincoln Town Car
Created on: 2011-04-27
Watch this video and learn how to remove the door panel to access and replace a bad door lock actuator. Follow the steps and do it yourself!
-
step 1 :Removing the Door Panel
- Unscrew and remove the door lock knob by hand
- Remove the Phillips head screws from the door pull
- Remove the door pull
- Remove the Phillips head screws underneath the door pull
- Remove the screws at the bottom of the door panel
- Undo the bottom door panel clips by hand
- Undo the top door panel clip
- Undo the side door panel clips
- Pull out the power window switch
- Release the power window switch wiring harnesses
- Pull the panel away from the door
- Release the remaining wiring harnesses
- Pull off the door panel
-
step 2 :Removing the Door Lock Actuator
- Use a hammer and punch to punch out the door lock actuator rivet
- If necessary, drill the rivet or shear it off with a chisel to remove it
- Unhook the actuator rod
- Pull out the actuator
- Undo the door lock actuator wiring harness
-
step 3 :Preparing the New Door Lock Actuator
- Pry the bracket off the old actuator with a flat blade screwdriver
- Clip the bracket on to the new actuator
- Punch the rivet out of the bracket with the hammer and punch
-
step 4 :Installing the New Door Lock Actuator
- Attach the correct actuator arm for your model to the actuator
- Make sure that the new and old actuators have the same reach contracted and extended
- Thread an M6 bolt through the bracket
- Hook the actuator arm into place
- Thread the bracket bolt through the door panel
- Attach the nut
- While holding the bracket in place tighten the nut with a 10mm socket
- Reconnect the actuator wiring harness
- Reconnect the power window switch wiring harness
- Test that the door lock actuator works
- Disconnect the power window switch wiring harness
-
step 5 :Reattaching the Door Panel
- Reconnect the wiring harnesses
- Push the door panel into place
- Insert all the door panel screws
- Reconnect the door pull
- Reattach the door lock knob
- Reconnect the power window switch wiring harness
- Insert the power window switch
- For more detailed instructions, please see the Lincoln Town Car door panel replacement video
Tools needed
-
Hammer
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Center Punch
10mm Wrench
Chisel
10mm Socket
Ratchet
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly: that's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
.In this video, we are going to show you how to remove and replace the power door lock actuator in this 2000 Lincoln Town Car, the same as any '98 to '02 Town Car. The tools you'll need are a Phillips screwdriver, a flat blade screwdriver, hammer and punch, and a 10mm wrench and socket and ratchet, and I put a little star next to it because you do have to supply your own bolt, so it could be a different size depending on what bolt you get.
Door panel removal: it's fairly simple. On this vehicle, this door panel has been taken apart a bunch of times, so some of the fasteners may be different for you, as well as, for example, it has a screw here which I believe most cars probably don't. The reason it has a screw here, I believe, is because so many of the pins in behind that hold it are broken. The way we start is remove your door lock knob just by unscrewing it, and in under here should be two, on this vehicle they are Phillips screws, and you just kind of put your screwdriver up under there. Now there is another Phillips screw up in here. This pulls out and then right in here you'll see there's another Phillips screw that goes into the door panel.
Okay, as you can tell, I've just been fast forwarding when I just get to the monotonous stuff. So, you remove that screw and then there is another screw next to the rear side of the pull. Okay, there's the bottom, there are two more Phillips screws; it's kind of a little indent in the carpet. Just put your screwdriver in there, twist it a little bit and you'll hit the screw.
This car has a little torque screw here. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be there or not. I'll remove it. This may not be on all cars. Then there is another screw here, but this is broken on my car so I know there is no screw in there. Then, what there is, is there's a series of clips. So, you would want to work your hand underneath here, and there is one clip right here, and you get your hand as close to those, and you can slide your hand underneath, and you slide it over and you'll feel it getting tighter and tighter. Then you give a good pull and get that clip out. Then come up here on the top and give it a good pull on the clip there. Then on these vehicles, there are more clips. There are clips in the middle and more on the edge, but like I said, this vehicle has been apart a few times. Actually, before you pull the door panel off, you want to pull your window switch up in the front and then pull it out. Then there is a series of harnesses that just have little tabs. You press the tab, pull the harness down. This gray tab: pull it down. The tab here on the black one and the tab here for the brown one.
Now pull the panel away and then a few more harness connections back here, a couple of small harnesses with a black and white connector. Press the little button here, and pull it apart. There's a blue connector here that has a tab on it that you pull the wires of the blue connector, and pull the tab out. It's hard to see. Okay, then there's a gray connector here, again a big tab, pull it apart So the screw is not quite all the way out. Your door panel is off.
Your door actuator is held in by a rivet right here. I've got a punch and a hammer and I'm going to punch out the center of the rivet first. Actually, once I punched it out, it actually broke the rivet. So, you may not get that lucky. You may have to end up drilling that rivet or shearing it off with a chisel, but again, like I said, I got lucky and it came right out. Okay, so now your door lock actuator is right here. You want to pull it back and you kind of just shake it up and down a little bit, and there's a rod that hooked in and now I'm pushing toward the back of the door. So that rod is in like that, so you have to bring it up and push it out of the hole it's in. Just bring it out.
There's a little clip here. Pull it down using a screwdriver. Pull it off. Now you are going to want to use a flat blade screwdriver and pry this clip off. Then we'll view the new actuator from 1A Auto: a little different shape, but that's okay. You can see it's got a stud here, here, and then one that's a little closer to the edge there, so that's how you know that you want it to be this way. You want to just put the clip here. Probably you would wear a pair of gloves because you can get pinched. Put the clip back on like that. You can do this before or after. I'm just going to put it right in my vise here, so that the vise is contacting the metal bracket here and just use my hammer and punch ... and knock that rivet out.
Okay, so here's my original actuator and new one from 1A Auto. What you want to do is: it comes with a few different arms to fit different vehicles, so just press that right in. You make sure that you just hold them together and make sure that the contracted position and the up position are basically the same.
Okay, we're ready to install. What I have is an M6 bolt. It's about a centimeter and a half overall in length. The threads are a little over a centimeter and I'm going to put that into my bracket, like that. I'm going to pre-tuck the film here, so you can see the arm is going in right there, and then down. So it's now in the same thing that when I move it up and down, my lock button goes up and down. With a finger, I'm kind of holding that bolt in place and I can see it come through right here, put this nut on, and this nut has little serrations to it, so that when I tighten it up it will stay. I'm just kind of holding the back of the bolt with my finger, and as it gets tighter it kind of wants to move. Take a 10mm wrench and it's not easy, but you can feel you way up in there, and tighten it up. I'll put the switch plug back in and you can see that's working well. Now we are just going to fast forward through putting the door panel back on. If you want to see this in regular speed, just check out our other videos for the Lincoln Town Car Door Panel Replacement.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
Shop Products
How to Replace Door Latch 1994-2002 Dodge Ram 1500
Check out this video to learn how to replace the door latch assembly on your 94-02 Dodge Ram. 1A Auto shows you how to do it yourself
