Be warned, 40 lb solenoids are very strong! Of course my setup varies from the usual way of doing it, but these solenoids snapped my linkage in half! Here's a pic to show you what I mean....and for those who responded to my post last week....well I got the door panel off....the top trim piece is ruined but I have a new one for it ....and since I dont wanna be a post *****, Ill post a before and after pic of my steering wheel swap as well




here's the linkage....

 

ouchiez

 

damn that B### is strong

 

crap.Wow.

nice steering wheel. I love that wheel

 

Damn, i almost flipped today when i took the iroc out of winter retirement and the passenger solenoid didnt make a sound, saved me that the door pannels off since i made new ones already, but i pushed the solenoid down adn threw some WD 40 in there and it came back to life, i think i have 25 or 30 pounders in my car, works fine, also i dont have them hooked up to the linkage, i have them hooked straight to teh latch.

 

I want to shave the handles on my T/A this summer, but I won't use any door solenoids.

I will just use the window feature on my alarm to roll the windows down and then reach in to open the door.
It would suck for some wind to catch the door and bend it around forward.

Yes, and hope for no dead battery.

Jim.

 

well if I get a dead battery I'd just go in through the hatch...thats the only safety really for these cars.....as for rehooking it up, I think I'll do the latch method now, but I still want to incorporate a way so that I can use the inner door handles for ease of use.....this came at a bad time, theres too many projects going on now!!!

 

nice to know. what lbs rating would you wish you had used then.

i really wish i liked shaved handles on my car as i contemplated it for years. same with that color.

 

Damn, never seen that before, dude that hood looks freaking sick in that first pic, didnt realize how tall it was

 

lol jeff...


From what I was told, 15lbs is the recommended bare minimum just to factor in different weather conditions (cold weather may weaken the pull due to cold wires etc.). I wish I had gone within the range of 25-30 max. The biggest misconception is that the solenoid power determines how much the door will open, when all it represents is the lbs of force used to pull the latch (Im sure you already knew that). Ever since I hooked it up and first tried it out, I could tell 40lbs pulled way too hard...picture grabbing your inner handle as hard and as fast as hard as you can until it stops, and thats the action it has. If I mounted them the traditional way, 40-60-even 100lb solenoids would not be a problem as they are directly attatched to the latch, but I wanted the inside to look stock and still have the use of the inner door handles so I wasnt pressing buttons inside my car just to get out.

I think what Im going to do is keep the way it's setup, but get someone to bead a weld around the spot so it's alot stronger....it's not like Im ever going to put door handles back on this car so :meh:


irocbirdbuilder: the hood took me so long to get used to, it's very tall in the back, but I dont think it compares to the sight of a 4in cowl ....and hey at least it's taking peoples attention off of my hideously cracked dash...blech

 

shave them, jus make sure you attach the solenoid to the latch itself and rivet the noid onto the door itself, thats the way i did it and it works great.

 

Where did you get the solenoid from? I'm planning on shaving mine soon.

 

and in doing so I lose the ability to use the inner door handles, which is why I didnt use that method...


The kit is from VPA, got it from summit....heres a pic



the kits online are all screwed up....some say 45lb's but when you go into the details it will ist them as 35lb. I went out of the catalog because they listed 40lbs in there, and it says 40lbs on the kit I have....nothing wrong with the kit, and though I cant compare it to others, it doesnt 'misfire' or anything....just too damn strong

 

So, what's a good kit to use? Is the VPA good? any suggestions?

 

thats what Im using, and I think it offers everything a shaved door handle kit should. It has extra parts so you can hook it up a variety of ways (good if you end up in a bind like me). It has 2 - 4 channel remotes, though I havent hooked them up to anything else yet. I heard autoloc makes the best kits, but they seem a little overpriced. I think I spent about 130-150 bucks on the kit, and it's rated to something along the lines of 30,000 pulls for each solenoid.....Ive had them installed since july and this is the only problem Ive had....just look into maybe 30lb solenoids if you can

 

couldnt u just install the poppers in the middle console thats what i am planning on doing.

 

you could, but I opted not to use the buttons....someone on here made a very clean door panel that had only the push button on it, and the armrest....looked like alot of work though

 

what you talkin about loosing the use of the inner door handle, you hook up the solenoid to the hole where the rod from the actual door handle goes into the latch. This has nothing to do with the inner door handle, the rod from the inner door handle is completely separate and goes into a separate part of the latch then the outer door handle.

 

sorry charged, I misread your earlier post. Ill toy around with the idea, but first I gotta get that link working again lol. If I do it the traditional way Im gonna have to rewire alot of stuff to because they wont extend to the back of the door with the wires Im using now.....still plenty of time though, it's only march

 

I've been working with some vipers recently. Their doors are almost like a shaved handle set up.

The interor and exterior both have handles, but they trigger a small microswich that pops the door latch.

If you where to make your interior handle trigger a swich, you wouldn't have to worry about that linkage.

Also, in case of power failure or emergencies. there is a hidden cable pull on the inside which releases the latch, and on the outside, on the top side of the door louver/indent there is a lock cylinder (operated by ignition key) that is linked to another cable pull. (i havn't taken the door apart, but from the tech drawings that's how it looks.

With this setup, you can retain your interior handle, but have it function soley on the electric release. And in emergencies/power failure, you don't have to crawl through the hatch...

Hiding a lock cylinder on the door exterior would be tricky.... maybe on the underside of the mirror???

 

VPA makes a good kit, thats what I have and so does Redraif. I'd be hesitant to eliminate the inside door handle without a mechanical backup of some kind; what if the battery cable shorted out, started a fire, and you couldn't get out? I may try to do something like the Viper mentioned above, since I would love to be able to lose the inside door handle too and replace it with a button.

 

yea the viper idea sounds very cool, and different....it'd be nice to see inside the door of one though to get an idea of how it works....that may take some work

 

you have to keep your inner door handles fuctional its the law!!! cops could pull your car off the road if they arnt!!. Think about it, if theres a fire or an accident that damages your elec system or if you get hurt and cant move, no ones gettin in your car. so keep those inners workin!! dont do it any other way