Power Door Lock Issues (resolved)

[KilgoreTrout]

Ok, so this was odd.

I had posted before about fixing my power windows, but my locks still didn't work and it was driving me nuts. I had no power to the actuators. Now I know why.

First I swapped lock switches and got the relay to click. Yay. Still no lock action.
So I pulled the relay.
The relay is above the brake pedal tuck way up there.
It looks like this:

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It's grounded through the bolts that hold it up there, so remember that it won't energize/click if it's not mounted or you aren't getting a good ground connection on it. (Unfortunately, that wasn't my issue).
To troubleshoot with it not mounted, you'll notice I used an alligator clip on the mounting plate and screwed the other end in to a dash panel screw to ground it.

Anyway.......this is how the relay works:
The blue wires on one side of the relay go to the lock switches. Hit the switch, it energizes the relay, which sends power from the power pole on the relay (orange wire) to either of the side poles (gray or tan wires) that go to the lock actuator to make it go up or down.

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The relay was working as it should and I had power everywhere, so that wasn't my issue.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Next, I traced the lock wires further up in the dash. I already had my cluster out, so that made it easy.
I still had power at the next harness.

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From here, the tan and grey wires either go to the top of the dash and across to the passenger door, or straight out the cab wall to the driver's door.
WHY THE HELL IS THERE NO POWER TO MY DRIVERS DOOR LOCK CONNECTOR!?!

 

[KilgoreTrout]

So I decided there HAS to be a break in the wire between the cab and door.
No power, no continuity on EITHER wire (grey or tan).
So I cut in to the the rubber piece where the wires run between the door and cab.

You've gotta be ******* kidding me.

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At first I thought I cut them, but nope! They've been cut for a long time.
Look at the oxidation on the end of the wires!
I've heard of wire breaks in this location before, but that's like no break I'd ever seen.
And nothing else looks like it's been touched.
Wtf?

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Anyway, time to run new wire.
All I had was 10ga stranded from an old control panel wiring job.
And yes, I wire nutted it together. Lol...
I may go get some connectors and thinner wire today and do it cleaner, I don't know.

But feed some new wire through where the old wire was, connect the the grey and tan wire below the harness to the grey/tan wire on your door lock actuator harness, and pray.

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[KilgoreTrout]

Bwahaha.....

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[gmachinz]

That break inside the boots are the most common problem.

 

[gmachinz]

The problem is the OE wiring jacketing is acrylic-so it cracks easily with extreme cold weather-then oxidation attacks the embrittled copper strands from repeated opening/closing of the doors-eventually breaking the strands off one at a time while corrosion keeps building up...gets to the point where it makes a complete break.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Yep, once I started pulling **** out, I could see insulation cracks on the wire between the boot and cab.
The other wires don't look like the grey and brown set, though.

 

[gmachinz]

Those are a marine grade acrylic bonded pair-different class of jacketing but still junk compared to todays wire.