Shaved Door Solenoid Problem

Shaved Door Solenoid Problem

A friend of mine recently bought a shaved door kit for his S10. It came with 45lb solenoids. Today we made an attempt to install them, but we ran into one small problem. Once we had everything hooked up the solenoids wouldn't pull the latch to open the door. He was told that 45lb solenoids would be more than enough. We tried everything from putting more tension in the wire, to giving it slack, and even switched the terminals as the manual told us. It still wouldn't pull the lever. Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be?

Is the problem that the motor just isn't strong enough for the doors, or is it that the motor isn't firing at all?

try lubing up all the pieces that go with the doorhandle / actuator then see if it works

if not you might need a bigger solenoid

There is no way in hell you need a bigger solenoid. My friend who had an S-10 bagged, shaved, supra tails grafted in the roll pan, etc. had 40 lb. solenoids.

As stated, is the solenoid functioning at all? Because 45 should be more than sufficient.

Yea its working fine, its like it just doesn't have the power to pull it. You can push the button to open the door and the solenoid pulls the cable tight then stops. I can put my finger on the solenoid and just put a little pressure on it and it opens the door. It comes VERY close to pulling the latch, but stops just short. I checked the length of the wire and it has the perfect amount of slack. I'll take everything apart toight and lube it up, and fill you in on my luck with that. Thanks for everyones input.

Hmm, definately let us know. Does it have propper room to pull the cable as far as it needs?

Problem Solved

We installed the kit on the other door today and everything worked fine. Although it did take a couple tried on getting the tension set right for the cable. Once I got to looking at the other door that wouldn't work. I realized that there was a rubber bushing missing from the door pin. This caused the door to sag just enough so that it would jam when closed. I went to the local junk yard and got a bushing and now everything works perfect. Thanks for everyones input on this.