Power Tailgate Lock

Post results, want to order one of it all goes well.

 

This effing weather. Constant rain. Tryna get a window to do this lock! No garage.

 

Subd

 

Any luck?

 

I managed to get mine in today, after having the parts for about 2 weeks. I pretty much did it the same way as the OP, except for a few small differences. I took some pics that should add to the OP.

This should give an idea of where to mount the actuator. If you follow the small tape to the left, it points at the latch. The wide tape 10" mark is centered on the white screw insert.


Since the mounting area isn't flat, I used washers on either side of a nut to act as a spacer.


This shows the rod going from the actuator to the latch. The bend in the middle allows you to adjust the length of the rod by tweaking it.


I drilled holes in the factory plastic inserts and tied the loom to the same harness as the camera.


Properly crimped weatherpack pin for the plug under the bed.



The plug I used for the actuator wires under the bed.



Under the bed - the white connector on the left is the one for the camera, the black one to the right of that is the 2-pin weatherpack connector I used to unplug the actuator if I ever decide to take the tailgate off.

The harness from the plug, all the way up to the front kick panel was 20ft long. I cut that much wire as a guess and it ended up being exactly the right length.

Overall, it took about 3 hours working at a casual pace. It was pretty easy, but I've done actuators before, so I'm sure that helped. Hopefully this info will make it a little easier for someone else.

 

Just wanted to say thanks to all who contributed this this awesome thread, can't wait to do mine.

Question: Do you think it's feasible to do the same type of mod on a hard top cap? I'm eyeing the ARE Overland, and the only thing holding me back is the lack of a power lock. Thoughts?

 

Put the solenoid on the cap? It depends on how much force it needs to release their latch. I'm sure it could be done, but it may take a different actuator to pull the release.

 

I'm also going to look into putting a resistor inline on the actuator wire, because this thing is a lot stronger than it needs to be for the job and makes a pretty noticeable "thunk" inside the tailgate.

 

I have thought of doing this myself but don't know how much resistance I would want to put in there..

 

Ok, this is probably a stupid set of questions but I've got to ask before I try:

1- The actuator has a blue and green wire. The cab has a pink/green wire and a pink/red wire. Which is spliced to which? My guess is the pink/green to the green but I want to be sure.

2-when you spliced the 5 amp fuse, did you just tag it onto the pink/red above or below the splice?

 

yup green to green and fuse in between the red splice

 

Since the polarity is reversing for lock and unlock, it doesn't matter which wire the fuse goes on - as long as it is in-line with one of the two wires going to the actuator. The current is the same on both wires.

I don't pay attention to the colors on the actuator. I just plug it in and test. If it is backwards (press lock and the tailgate unlocks), reverse the wires. If you are using the bullet connectors on the actuator or male spades and t-taps in the kick panel - this is easier than worrying about keeping the colors straight.

 

I don't know either, but I have some high-power resistors that I can experiment with, so I'll see if I can find something that will work.

 

Which wires do I use in the front??
I have everything done and cannot figure out which one it is.

 

When you remove the kick panel - look for a small harness that runs vertically near the door opening. They are attached to a plastic clip that holds them to the body metal. There are two wires that are larger gauge than the others. Pink with a red stripe - and pink with a green stripe.

 

Which ones? The only ones I see that connect to the body metal are white and black

 

I did this to my 2010 went to the junk yard got a corola door lock and its been working for 5 years

 

It looks like you're on the passenger side. I tied into the drivers side. Still, follow the wires coming out of the boot from the door - they should be in there.

 

I also went to the passenger side. I didn't see any striped wires at all on the harness from the passenger side door, so I poked around with a multimeter probe and so far I'm 50/50--my tailgate locks when I hit either button, attached to light blue and green.

 

On a normal door lock circuit, the two wires will rest at ground, then one of the two wires will go to 12v on lock, and the other one will go positive on unlock.

If you're using the remote to test - make sure you hit unlock twice.