Central locking actuator

[ChesterJLampwick]

Iris has a rum sense of humour these days, only when we’d actually set off for Goodwood last year did she decide that now would be a good time to start jumping out of gear. Tomorrow morning we set off for the Le Mans Classic, so after never being a problem in 12 years the central locking has suddenly gone up the pictures. Basically the drivers door doesn’t lock and unlock off the fob at all, or even the key. To lock her up I’m reaching from the passenger side to turn the locking knob on the door.

Bentley manual out (for the first time), door card off and I’ve found the problem, the ball joint at the end of the actuator rod is worn out (metal ball, nylon socket), putting it back only fixed the problem for two minutes, once I’d put all the door fixtures back on it thought it would be funny if it popped off again.

I’m sure we’ll cope in France, although the biggest challenge is not to lock ourselves out accidentally somehow. My problem though is when I get back, the actuator and rod seem to be made of unobtainium. The actuator seems to work ok, so if I could just replace the nylon cup on the rod end that would be great, although I know life is never that simple. They do seem to come as a whole assembly when available, Type911 have got none, Design911  have ones that fit later models (mines a 1985). I’m not sure how interchangeable parts are, would Porsche themselves be worth asking? Nothing I can do for a week anyway other than cope with it.

Does anyone know where I’d get one, or even better has anyone with a lightweight IB got an unused one under the work bench? That’s got to be worth a shot, years ago I got my auto heat sensor from SilverWT (I think) on here, as the extra weight was too much for him.

 

[mean in green]

You might just need a new small white nylon bush for the end of the rod, I thought they were available (but could be wrong).

Edit:

 https://type911shop.co.uk/epages/de867ca1-377e-432e-84fd-bdccf2206766.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/de867ca1-377e-432e-84fd-bdccf2206766/Products/581&ViewAction=ViewProduct

[ChesterJLampwick]

That’s not the one, but you are right if I can get the right one, it’s a nylon half cup, that screws on to the end actuator rod, very similar to the one on the end of the throttle rod under the gearbox that I was beggering about with the other week (throttle hang, that turned out to be carpet related!). If nothing happens before I get back from CLM, that’s what I need to search for.

I need to find the online parts book again but looking at later years the rod and cup is a separate part to the actuator, which is still going clunk when it should.

Update, using the online parts book, the rod assembly is 96453757100, and it seems available online, so it does look sortable.

[ChesterJLampwick]

It turns out that I can buy the whole rod as one piece, no adjustment at either end unlike the OEM ones. They all seem to come from Eastern Europe, however in the absence of the real thing it will do for now. There are a couple of used ones, but they are in the US and could easily be as worn out as mine, the wear isn’t obvious apart from the socket popping off the metal ball.

[ChesterJLampwick]

Fixed it with the new plastic repair rod, it did appear to be in a Porsche bag, so perhaps they just superceded the part with something easier to make, although that doesn’t sound like them. I have been told that replacement rod ends are available, but from my searches not with a semi cup on the end they’re not. Central locking works perfectly again.

Now Kas won’t have to lean across to turn the rotary knob to let me in. One wonders if you could fix the central locking on a modern car for thirty odd quid, although free labour helps.