Update: I got the new actuator today from roverlandparts.com. Thought I would have a stab at fixing it.

Got the door trim casing off no problem. It was very easy, and the RAVE manual was great.

Next was to get the actuator out. First you are supposed to disconnect the outdoor latch, the indoor latch, and the actual lock latch. The problem is they are all attached BEHIND the actuator. HOW DO YOU GET THESE UNATTACHED?

Well after a lot of fiddling, I got them off. So next I removed the screws in the door that attach the actuator to the door frame. Easy.

Next I had to get the actuator out of the door frame. How do you do this? In my 2000 Land Rover Disco II there is a big bar that comes down which is the window holder thing. This blocks the actuator from being able to get out of the hole in the frame. Do you have to remove this to get the actuator out?

After a long time of trying every which way I could, I got the sucker out. It wasn't pretty, but it did come out.

Now I CANNOT get the new one in. Any ideas of how you get that thing in the door frame?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ouch, on my recent purchase (2003 Disco II) the driver side passenger door is doing the same thing. Won't lock or unlock with the key FOB. Gonna have to do this soon so please update if you get the actuator in the door.

 

Update: Spent most of my Saturday morning getting the new actuator in. A lot tougher than I thought it would be. I suspect the front doors wouldn't be as hard, but the back doors just don't have a lot of room to work. I would highly recommend that after you get the door panel off, you remove the bolt in the door that holds the window bar in place. If you remove this bolt, you will be able to manuever the actuator a lot easier. Unfortunately the bolt holding mine was stripped, so I didn't have that option.

To get the new actuator in, I had to hit it with a hammer a couple times to force it into the door. Not exactly what I would like to do, but it got it in, and it didn't break anything. Now, after you have the actuator in, the first thing you need to do is connect the cable that opens the door from the inside door handle. This is next to impossible to do if the actuator is attached to the door.

After you have connected the cable release for the inside door handle, attach the actuator to the door via the three bolts that connect it to the door frame.

The next two parts are what took me the longest. It doesn't really matter what order you do them, but next you have to attach the outside door handle rod, and the door lock rod to the actuator.

There are two green plastic things that go into holes of the actuator. These are to lock the rods into the actuator so they don't fall out. If you can, put these into the right holes BEFORE you bolt the actuator to the door. I couldn't do that because I had to bang my actuator in with a hammer and I didn't want them to break in the process.

If you cannot attach them before you bolt the actuator to the door, I am sorry, because it is really tough to get them into the right holes while the actuator is attached to the door. The way they are designed is that they will not go into the holes while the rod is attached. You have to get them into the holes, and then attach the rod, and then it locks in place.

If you end up like me, I found the best method for the lock rod to put the green thing on the end of the rod, but don't lock it into place. Put it down through the door panel and then feel your way to the hole where the green plastic thing belongs. Put it into the hole, and then pull the door lock rod out, while still holding the green thing in the apropriate hole. If you can, just push it all the way in with your finger. If you can't I just used a screwdriver to push it into place. Now the gree thing should be locked in place. After that, you just put the door lock rod down through the door and feel your way to the apropriate hole where you just attached the green thing. Then you just push the rod into the green thing and lock it into place. It sounds a lot easier than it is. Because all these parts are behind the actuator and you really can't see at all what you are doing.

Now for the outside door handle rod. This was the most challenging of the three. The rod that attaches these two pieces is small and doesn't like to stay in place very well. If it falls, which it will at some point, you may think you lost it forever. The way the curves of the door are, you can't see or get into the cracks very well, which is of course where the rod falls every time. I found it very effective to get a wire hanger and push it through the cracks in the door until I was able to locate the rod and get it to an accessible place that I could grab it.

Now the process begins the same as the door lock rod. First you have to attach the little green plastic lock thing. After a lot of trial and error and I figured out the best way to attach this piece. First, you have to attach the rod to the outside door handle. Then put the rod into the hole without the plastic green lock thing and pull the door handle. This you will see, will pull the metal mecanism away from the actuator to a position that you can actually see the hole and place where the two rods attach. Now grab a something to wedge between the metal mecanism and the actuator to hold it open in place. I used a socket to hold it open. Now that this is done, you will actually be able to see the hole where you are trying to attach everything. Also, it really helps to have two people to do the previous step. My wife helped me, and I think it would be really tough to do by yourself, but maybe you could manage.

Now that the hole is visible, remove the rod from the hole. Now you need to attach the green thing to the hole. The method I used for this one was a little different. You can't really put the green thing on the rod and then push it into place. I actually put a very small drill bit into the hole. Then I threaded the green thing on the drill bit and push it up to the hole. Basically this just helps make sure you don't miss the hole. This was after literally an hour of trial and error, and after I applied the aftorementioned method, it took I think two tries.

So after you get the green thing locked into place, you need to attach the outside door handle rod. Keep the metal mechanism pushed away from the actuator with whatever you wedged in there. Because it is pushed away from the actuator, when you attach the rod, you will need to pull the door handle out a little bit to be able to get it attached. You will need to attach the rod to the outside door handle first. After you have that done, you just take the other end of the rod, and push it into the green plastic locking thing. And that's it.

I don't know if there is an easier way of doing it. When I was talking to a Land Rover specialist mechanic, he made it sound like the inside door metal panel actually lifts off a little bit (like two inches) which would give you more room to work. Not sure though what he was talking about, because my door seems to be all one piece.

Anyway, that is how I did it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I will do my best to help. It took me approximately 6 hours. Haha which is a little emberassing to admit, because I really don't think it should have taken that long, but it was a lot harder than I thought.

Good news, everything works exactly as it should. The door now locks/unlocks with the push of the button, and both handles open the door.

 

Ok.. Thanks for the info. What time should I expect you over this Saturday to do mine bballjames?? =)