what does this rivet attach?

[tommyturbo]

so the head of this rivet popped off the lower inside of the drivers door, when I got in the car last night. It's a 90. Anyhow nothing seemed wrong till today. I noticed the power lock for the drivers side seems to not function, and it's very hard to push the lock button down by hand. it seems to work ok with the key outside. does this rivet hold the power lock actuator inside the door or ?

Does anyone have suggestions for reattaching, I don't have any experience with rivets.

Thanks! Attached a pic in case this helps folks.

 

[hawkeye18]

That's the rivet that attaches the power door lock/unlock solenoid to the door. Without that rive there, the solenoid will just move up and down instead of moving the lock up and down, and yes, it's a huge pain in the ass to deal with that lock when it's just hanging there.

I tried a few times to repair it, but not only is it nearly impossible to get to, it's quite difficult to reattach. I gave up, but it got repaired by a body shop after the car had a meeting with a deer.

Good f***in' luck.

 

[SHOtimer]

I swapped out my door lock actuator when my original one died.

I had to drill out the original rivet, replace the actuator then re-rivet the new one in.

Had to obviously pull the door panel....and it was a huge pain, but do-able.

The rivet was larger than any other rivet i've seen. My friendly Ford dealer let me borrow their rivet gun that fit the rivet to install it - in the parking lot.

That was on my '95.

Doug

 

[tommyturbo]

Thanks Guys! Kinda what I figured. Where did you get a replacement rivet? I can pull the door panel and drill out the old rivet in the actuator. I'll see what I can find on rivets, but any size and where to get one advice is welcome.

 

[SHOtimer]

The new rivet came with the new actuator.

I'm sure you could find one of the right size at Lowe's or Home Depot....

Doug

 

[jelloslug]

The new rivet came with the new actuator.

I'm sure you could find one of the right size at Lowe's or Home Depot....

Doug

Nope, they don't have it, nor do they have the tool to pull the rivet.

 

[Off Road SHO]

Most hardware stores only carry 1/8" or smaller pop rivets. I found some larger versions at Horror Fright, but they didn't have the tool to pull them. I think they were 3/16 shaft. You might be able to talk your local body shop into using their air gun once you get the panel off.



Tom

 

[tommyturbo]

well, went to harbor freight, biggest hand rivet gun is up to 3/16, but the ford spec rivet is 6.3mm which is like .25 inch, so the gun is too small, plus I can't find any rivets that aren't plastic big enough, and through ford they are $29 a piece.

So I used a shorter screw with a big head and a quick nut inside the door in the bracket, and that worked fine.

Was getting irritated all day with the power lock and keypad not locking and unlocking the door. I am even more spoiled on my 95 with keyless remote ,lol.

 

[Blackdr16]

mine broke too. Was going to just put a little tac weld on it..anybody done that before?

 

[hawkeye18]

I tried a glob of JB-Weld.

It did not work.

 

[SHOBlu]

Your local jobber parts store that does body shop supplies should have those large rivets. If you have no luck with that, PM me...... I've got one I can spare. Cheers.

 

[IBleedFordBlue]

use a simple bolt and nut!!! i have much experience installing power door lock kits and or replacing FORD riveted motors....they will go bad again...a bolt and nut will do the job and make second time service easier

 

[mrecoolgar]

As stated above, I replace the rivets with a bolt and nut.
The PL actuator is harder to place a nut between the actuator and the mount bracket.
So I drill the hole larger and use a M6-1.00 nutsert, aka rivet nut.