See also: Hot VWsUpgrade
Solutions for Ford's Fiesta-Escort-Transit
Power Window Upgrade / Power
Locking Upgrade
WOLF Electronic Services are the undisputed experts when it comes to
central door locking kits for cars and commercial vehicles. Everyone is familiar
with M.E.S. central locking actuators Wolf is the exclusive distributors for
M.E.S., supplying the actuators world wide, even as far as Taiwan and the United
States.
Consequently they are called upon to design CDL systems for a diverse
range of vehicles, including classics such as MGBs and TR7s. But the purpose of
this text is to illustrate their latest solution to an otherwise extremely
difficult and time consuming CDL conversion that of the new Ford Fiesta, and
others.
The thing that makes the new Fiesta a bit of a pig to convert is the
fact that the mechanism, which has three positions locked, unlocked and open
is operated by a single sheathed cable. To operate this mechanism with an
aftermarket actuator calls for a combination of precise solenoid movement and
free play which is not available from the standard M.E.S. door actuator.
Secondly, the entire lock mechanism is shrouded internally with a heavy metal
cover held in place with oodles of that nasty Ford sealant gunge, and it's not
meant to come off. Thirdly, side impact door beams are now right where you might
have mounted an aftermarket actuator. It is possible to remove the lock and with
a lot of fiddling get a bicycle spoke to operate directly on the lock, but,
would you spend 2 days on a central locking conversion? More to the point, would
your customer pay for the labour?
"Until now, the problem has been getting an aftermarket specialist to
agree to tackle the job Half of them will say 'no' can't do it, the other half
will say 'do I have to? it's going to cost you!" said Bob Blyth, director of
Wolf.
|
1. The Politecnica mechanism replaces the OE mechanical winder
bolt-for-bolt. 2.
Three studs and three bolts to fix.
3. Two bolts pick up the OE window rail to lift the glass.
4. Smart switch pod fixes over original manual winder hole. |  |
 |
With this in mind the Wolf designers commissioned a special M.E.S.
actuator to give the correct stroke and free play to operate directly on the O.E.
cable. This, combined with a carefully made kit of parts enables a fast and
reliable conversion for the new Fiesta. It took Wolf over a year of development
and testing to satisfy themselves that this conversion would work reliably in
the long term.
The new Ford Escort and Transit have a similar cable operated mechanism
and kits are available for these vehicles too.
In this conversion we are also going to install a Politecnica power
window kit, so the manual winding mechanism was simply removed by drilling out
the rivets that held it to the inner door skin.
The winder kit uses an O.E. Bosch motor and gearbox and the mechanism is
as near to the factory original equipment as you can get. It even uses the same
mounting holes and can be a direct replacement for a defunct O.E. winder at a
fraction of the main dealer cost.
The Politecnica winder mechanism is wiggled into the door cavity, having
wedged the door glass at it's uppermost position, and fixes through the original
holes in the door skin with three nuts on studs and three bolts into threaded
holes. It takes literally a few minutes to remove the old manual mechanism and
install the new electric one. (There are some 250 bespoke kits in the
Politecnica range.)
The glass is lowered into position and another pair of bolts fix the
lifter to the original glass track. Job done, barring running the wiring which
you all know how to do, so we won't bore you with that.
This kit is supplied with colour coded switch pods which fix neatly over
the hole left by the manual winder.
Repeat this for the remaining door or doors.
