How To: Wiring up a standard lock kit as a door popper

[rickjames8]

So here is my install of a standard door lock kit to work as a remote lock/unlock, as well as a drivers side door popper.

I do believe that I will re-do this install with a different remote system, although it works the way it is, there is one thing I'd like to change. More on that later.

So, first off, if you've never worked on your doors before, here are a few tips.

1. You'll want something to keep the door at good level to work on. I used a 25lb dumbell, a piece of string, and a caribiner (a hook would have worked just as well) . I adjusted it so I could slither in and out of the space, but could also take it on and off quick.
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2. The edges of the metal inside the door are very sharp. You'll want to get some plastic edging and line them to protect your fingers while working in the door.
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3. While you're taking off all the panels, consider replacing the christmas trees with magnets.

Once the door panel is off, you'll start by unplugging and removing the power lock solenoid. Just for kicks, I weighed it, it came in at 28oz.The 3 actuators I installed came in at 4oz each, so that resulted in a net loss of 1lb, which makes the door open significantly faster.

This is the kit that I bought. It's $27 and includes the remote module, 2 remotes, and 4 actuators. It has a channel for the trunk popper, which I was able to repurpose to pop the driver door, by using 2 of the actuators.

I've wired up a few cars with electric poppers before and have always used high-power solenoids. I tried to find a place to install a larger solenoid (happened to have one from an old project) but found there was no good spot to mount it. However, the DeLorean doors are set up in a unique fashion because they have two latches, which gives the opportunity to install two actuators, thereby doubling the pulling power you can give to the door. I found a video on a wings-a-loft install that took this approach too. However, I'd imagine their actuators are stronger than the ones in my kit, so I had to install mine in a bit of an odd way. When I installed the actuators to pull on the rods in the typical fashion, they didn't have enough force. The distance the rods travel is quite short, and as such, these actuators don't have the power to pull them over such a short distance.

Here's how I did the install. First, I tried using the mounting hardware that came with the kit. They're these little pieces of brass-colored metal that are included with these kits. I was able to cut them in half and to bend them and make little L-brackets out of them, as you can see, this is what I did on the front actuator.
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I needed to drill mounting holes. You can see where I drew my planned mounting hole with marker - the metal is too thick there, you''ll need to go much lower. Or maybe my drill bit was just too old.

I tried mounting the rear actuator with the same included hardware, but needed a bit more stability, so I used some old L-brackets I had from previous projects.
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In order to get the leverage to open the door, I needed to hook the puller to the highest point on the 'pivot' piece, which I did here.
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I just made a little bend in the metal pull rod and hung it over the pivot to see if it would work. Amazingly, I opened the door a dozen times with it just resting there like that and it never moved! All the same, I secured it with some cable ties.
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(3 cable ties are shown in the photo, the topmost one later removed because it interfered with the action by rubbing on the door).

Then I made a test wiring rig to see if it would work. The actuators have two wires. You send (+) and (-) to them one way to pull (green = (+)) and then reverse the polarity to push (blue = (+)). So, once I wired them together, I stuck a little momentary button on the circuit which allowed me to test the actuators. By the way, the door doesn't re-open easily if you don't close it fully. I got stuck in the car for a bit because I was trying to be gentle closing the door with the dangling wires. I also needed to re-install the pull-handle to close the door.
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The actuator I used for the lock/unlock installed in the stock location. Again, I used a leftover L-bracket. I was going to put a second one on, but it seems to work just fine and feel very solid with one, so I left it that way.
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Wiring up the system doesn't require you to access the door plugs near the rear speakers, only the plug at the door lock module. In fact, the module I got happened to be the exact same size as the factory one, which meant that I could pretty much just swap them out.
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Normally, I don't like to cut wire harnesses, but it just made the install so much easier, and I figured that if any future owner wanted to return it to stock, a simple re-soldering could put the harness back on.
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With all these connections, I recommend solder+heat shrinks. You're going to need all the juice you can get to pop the doors.

To wire up the lock/unlock at the module, it was as simple as hooking the blue/green on the module to the red/grey and red/pink, which are twisted together. Then black to ground, red to power, and the aux (trunk) channel to the brown/grey wire. Now, originally I hooked the trunk trigger directly to this brown/grey wire, but later I realized that the system sent a negative trigger, and I'd need a positive trigger. So just hooked up a N.O. relay to send a (+) when the circuit was closed.
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Inside the door, the lock/unlock was hooked up to the respective red/grey and red/pink. Somehow I had this reversed, but obviously an easy fix.

For the trigger for the poppers, use the black wire found in the original door lock harness (this is your ground), and then the brown/grey wire in the lock sensor harness to send the power (which remains unplugged, and the "lock doors" light no longer functions. I unplugged that harness on the passenger door side too as I didn't know what effect sending (+) through that circuit could have, as I think it normally transmits (-) to the warning lamp.

I will likely add the lock/unlock to the passenger door this week. Should be an easy add, as the harness is already sending power to that location.

The only thing I don't like about this system is that the trunk popper takes a 3-second long press, then you hear it click. Then, for some odd reason, it waits another 3 seconds before sending the signal. I want to push the button and have the door open right then. So I think I'll end up buying this unit, which actually has 2 AUX channels so I can buy a couple of extra actuators and pop the passenger one as well. Had I started off that way and bought these poppers, I'd have been at $44. As it stands, I'll be about $58 in to this project, but with an extra remote unit which I'm sure I can use on another car at some point, or for a random project somewhere.