Defender 90 Rear Door Central Locking

Found a number of posts relating to central locking but none that quite matched the problem my 90 S/W has so hopefully I'm not going over old ground here. The central locking on the rear door has never worked in the time I have had the Landy and I finally got round to taking the door card off today - prior to that I could hear the solenoid firing and assumed that the actuator rod had dropped off but it's fine. What seems to happen is that the solenoid goes to full travel for a second then drops back slightly - presumably just enough to unlock the door again. The 'tab' that you use to lock/unlock the door from the inside follows suit - it goes to full travel and then drops back. Gave the lock mechanism a good lubing (who knew locking/unlocking with the key could be so easy!) but the problem persists. I can't see any way of adjusting the travel on the solenoid so presumably it's a case of buy a new one? Thanks in advance.

Have you tried disconnecting the actuator rod from the solenoid, to see if the solenoid works and doesn't drop back a bit on it's own. Then you'll know if it's the solenoid or something in the mechanism pulling it back.

I had to replace the OEM actuator for a cheapy from ebay and it works fine

Al2O3 said:

Have you tried disconnecting the actuator rod from the solenoid, to see if the solenoid works and doesn't drop back a bit on it's own. Then you'll know if it's the solenoid or something in the mechanism pulling it back.

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Outstanding idea - why did I not think of that! Thanks!

marksman said:

I had to replace the OEM actuator for a cheapy from ebay and it works fine

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Thx Marksman - I have one on the 'watch list' now but will try the removing the actuator rod in the morning per AI203's suggestion.

You'll only need a two wire not five wire

Defender54 said:

Outstanding idea - why did I not think of that! Thanks!

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I've owned a Defender and maintained it myself for a very long time. Problem solving methods become beaten in to you
Like Marksman I've found cheapy actuators (Hawk ones) to be ok. Not great, but ok. Their wiring harnesses are terrible though. I fitted their central locking system to my 96 Defender 90 and it was superb for about a year or nearly two. Then it stopped working On inspection I found the wiring harness to be crumbling and you couldn't tell the difference between the plastic insulation and what had been the copper wire inside. Seriously, it just fell in two and all looked the same inside

Simply replace the oem actuator with the cheapy (no need for the new harness or control module)

marksman said:

Simply replace the oem actuator with the cheapy (no need for the new harness or control module)

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Got it - thanks again!

Actually it turned out to be much more straightforward - bit of a 'duh' moment on my part but in an exercise in advanced muppetry, someone had refitted the mechanism with the nylon t-piece upside down. So it was locking when it should have been unlocking etc. It looks like (presumably) the same muppet has cross-threaded and stripped the thread from three of the studs holding the lock itself to the door - fingers crossed that I never need to try and get that off the door!

Defender54 said:

Actually it turned out to be much more straightforward - bit of a 'duh' moment on my part but in an exercise in advanced muppetry, someone had refitted the mechanism with the nylon t-piece upside down. So it was locking when it should have been unlocking etc. It looks like (presumably) the same muppet has cross-threaded and stripped the thread from three of the studs holding the lock itself to the door - fingers crossed that I never need to try and get that off the door!

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Pleased you've got it sorted

A classic case of assuming the worst and going straight to the complicated solution rather than looking for the simple things first!

Defender54 said:

A classic case of assuming the worst and going straight to the complicated solution rather than looking for the simple things first!

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Easily done with Land Rovers because we're that used to things going wrong