Date:         Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:58:54 -0600
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      ELECTRIC DOOR LOCK OPERATORS
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

From an add on Amazon a I bought two of the new green door actuators for
sassenger and drivers side. Add implied propper cables included But such
was not the case. they were cheap enough, so i just kept them, thinking I
would just somehow adapt them for the sliding door and hatch. I looked for
the harness that made a smooth conversion from vanagon door harness to the
operator but found none anywhere. All our vendors had none - except one,
and they sold the same operator with a custom made harness, but would not
sell the harness separately. I had to have the harnesses and operators for
the doors so I bit the bullet and bought them, even though I thought the
price way to high, but they had the only game in town. When I installed the
operator and cables they did not work. I checked electric circuits in the
van and they were ok. Ihen I checked the operator harnesses. Then I checked
the operators through the connection terminals. Nothing. then i took the
back plates of the operators and looked inside. With a meter I tested the
terminals, which were connected to a circuit board under which I could not
see. There were parts I could not test because of the way that board was
installed but I was able to test the motor at its terminals and it ran
fine. I checked all the others the same way, including the Amazon look
alike and the motors ran fine. The Vanagon vendor would not accept the
return, the reason given was their supplier had told them that since I had
opened the operators I had upset sensitive alignment and clearances inside
and they would not take it back, so the vendor would not either. What a
crock of do-do! I'm a certified aircraft mechanic for criminy sake with
years of experience working on all kinds of aircraft and aircraft
electronics. Something as simple as these little operators is not something
that I would screw up. Anyway, the long and short of it is we are at logger
heads, they lost a customer, but I do have the harnesses I need. When I
took the back plates off all operators - the internal works are exactly the
same across the board. both vendor and Amazon. So if you are looking at
these green operators anywhere - Amazon, Ebay, where ever, it appears they
are identical and came from the same source - China. Don't let anybody tell
you different and ask a higher price.