My 86 GL broke... again

 

This time its not crucial to running it seems.... my power door locks and windows aren't working at all... the light came on the dash "Door Lock" but went away again after I shut the car off and hasn't come back on...

 

Checked under dash fuses, all appear to be good...

 

EA82 sedan... any ideas? Would like to wash the filthy animal today...

I'd suggest opening your drives door panel and checking the wiring loom and connectors to the switches. Drivers controls are the master for the rest of the system, if that fails AFAIK the rest of the doors and windows will not work even from their own switches.

Yikes, gotta tear apart the door panel? Is there another easy fix before I do that?

The easy check--not necessarily fix, you have to figure out the problem first--is to open the door wide and check the rubber

boot that the wiring harness runs through from door to body. It's a bit of a pain, but you can pop one end of the rubber boot

off (usually go for the door end) which will give you a limited view of the wiring bundle. Look for damaged wires. Sometimes you'll

get chafing at this point, especially if the rubber boot is damaged or missing, and wires will break or ground out.

 

Door panel itself is easy to pull apart. 

 

1) Pop little squarish covers off arm rest that cover mounting screws. Remove said screws and arm rest.

2) Carefully pry door handle trim piece out while holding handle open.

3) Start pulling (again, carefully) plastic fasteners that hold panel to sheet metal, each spaced about 6" apart.

    I'd suggest getting a cheap panel/fastener tool from Harbor Freight or what not to lessen the chance of breaking

    these plastic parts.

4) Lift panel out of top channel, and unplug harness connectors for master window control and master door lock. Or leave plugged in to test.

 

Takes all of about two minutes to open a doors guts up.

Edited July 24, 201312 yr by SmashedGlass

The door lock light being on is normal operation any time the doors are not locked. It is there to remind you to lock the door, as a safety feature. But if the light went out, then that circuit is not getting power.

 

Check the fuse links inside the black box on the overflow tank under the hood. A j-fuse of the same color can be substituted as a replacement(easier to find, free junkyard items)

They all look to be good, the green one seemed loose so I put another in (as I have a few spares)

 

I guess I could replace the red one and black one too and hope that helps. I pulled the door panel off, everything connected and honestly looks new still... It wasn't even that dirty back there!

 

So how do I test it?