$10 DIY Power Lock Tailgate

I used long screws. Anybody who owns a saw or a drill probably had some 2inch wood screws laying around.

 

thats what I thought. I ordered everything and just want to make sure I have it all on hand when it comes in. Thanks

 

I had to drill out the mounting holes on my actuator as they were too small for a drywall screw. Didn't want to take a chance cracking them.

 

I used two 2 inch #12 sheet metal screws. I just made oversizedd holes in the wood block and the screws self-tapped into the actuator.

 

Finally got around to doing this. Thanks again Meso, great way to spend a couple hours in the garage on a Sunday evening.

 

Well, after a few months my lock has stopped working.... I have a feeling the cheap actuator crapped out. I'll have to tear into it and see though. I'll probably check under body first to see if something happened to the wire though

 

If it's the wire, Be sure to run it exactly with the factory wiring and zip tie every foot or so. I personally put ¼" wire loom over mine as well. I could see the heat from the exhaust posing a problem depending on where you ran it so that would be a main spot to look for issues.

Hopefully it's just the actuator though. Easy to get to, cheap to replace. Head to your local best buy and go back to the stereo install bay and ask the auto tech for the one he'll have in stock

 

Yea I ran it with loom the whole length. Hopefully the wire didn't get torched, it wasn't all that pleasant worming my way around under there to run it the first time haha.

 

I did the exact same thing except as soon as I approached the heat reflective material on the original wire harness I re-routed the new loom to the outside of the frame near the bed mount. After a foot or so of running loom on the outside of the frame I re-routed again to the inside of the frame rail and attached to existing wire loom with zip ties.

 

Did mine last week. I isolated the motor from the metal and it's pretty quiet. Sounds like a door unlocking in a regular door.

 

So what am I doing wrong that mine locks then unlocks? I have tried reversing wires and when I use the door lock to open it cycles through open then close. Its weird that it does this on actuator as well as my door. Am I supposed to start in a certain position with the actuator extended vs compressed? Also, why won't my fob now work? It only works with my door. I used the pink/green and pink/red wires like in the original post. @mesojdm any ideas?

Thanks guys

 

So my door is in the unlocked position. If I manually lock it, it unlocks immediately without me pushing any buttons

 

Got it figured out. No clue why was doing the double action. I had not take completely apart the connections at the actuator and that seems to have done the trick. Great mod. Took me way longer but that's on me. Did you guys cut a hole in the grommet to get into the cab or just remove altogether?

 

Just poke a hole with a philips head or a pick tool and push the wire through. I’d recommend sealing it up with strip caulk or something that stays pliable. I’ve seen plenty of people not deal it up, and typically it won’t pose any issues if your truck doesn’t go too deep into water. But I definitely wouldn’t remove the grommet. Every puddle, every splash, every speck of dirt on a back road, will get inside the cab.

 

Revival from the dead, just picked up an actuator off Amazon today

 

Well, at least I'll be able to see this first hand whenever we get to finally meet up.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write those steps up. I'm planning on doing this mod, but I have a request- would you please be able to provide a link on Amazon or ebay to the correct 12V actuator? There's so many (with the different stroke lengths etc). Thanks in advance!

Edit: would this work?

$9 Etopars Black Car Plastic Universal Heavy Duty Power Door Lock Actuator 2 Wire 12V

https://www.amazon.com/Etopars-Black-Plastic-Universal-Actuator/dp/B0723CH2YD/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

 

sweet. definitely doing this

 

It would, but with zero reviews, I might opt for a more tested one

 

This was happening to me the other day. I tried messing with the settings in the head unit for the truck, and I managed to fix it by turning off the "unlock when shifting to park" feature. I'm not sure why your vehicle would always need to be unlocked when in park, but it must have been a requested feature for people to easily jump out of their car when they park.