Long Overdue Progress! Rebuild Doors & Latch Mods 10/02/24

Ready to fit the console gauge panel w/ gauges. Need to make sure I can get it in and out with all the wiring connected.

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Kind of dead in the water on this. The harnesses for the console gauges were not long enough, bought new ones but they have to be unpinned to "trans" female to male. The shells are on a slow boat from China. So I have been working on the door latching.

Console so far:

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Right below the latch handle will be a popper solenoid. The car is a 68 so the latch/lock cylinder was a mechanical push button. I'm going to replace that with a push button (switch) to unlatch the door. It works but makes a sound like hitting a railroad spike with a sledge hammer. I am looking at ways to quiet that down. I received the new connector shells and replaced so I can continue with the gauge console.
 
BBShark said:
Right below the latch handle will be a popper solenoid. The car is a 68 so the latch/lock cylinder was a mechanical push button. I'm going to replace that with a push button (switch) to unlatch the door. It works but makes a sound like hitting a railroad spike with a sledge hammer. I am looking at ways to quiet that down. I received the new connector shells and replaced so I can continue with the gauge console.
Click to expand...

in theatre rooms they want the walls to be separate or isolated from the joists. i guess the theory is the noise transmits through the hard surface connection. you almost need to follow the same guidelines and have an isolated mounting then stick the solenoid in some sort of sound absorbing envelope. I wonder if you could use Audio Visual (AV) mounting pads to isolate it
 
I am planning on isolation mounts but the solenoid is 40w, although its duty cycle is very low. So, that means heat (in theory). I might be able to acoustically insulate the door panel and the inside surface of the door?

Edit: I'm not so sure how much I can improve the hammer noise. When I tested the solenoid was attached to a wood block. I'm going to try putting a felt pad on the tip of plunger.
 
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A couple of strips of Dynamat or similar sound deadening product affixed to the inside of the door skin and the inner door structure may be all you need. You can often get away with a smaller piece than you might think because you are just adding some mass to dampen the noise. Some close to the solenoid and some out in the middle of the wide expanse of door skin along with the inner door panel area where all the door and window opening mechanisms attach may take care of it. Mine sounds like a crashing china cabinet when I close the door, so this is on my list of things to do. I have seen it effectively done for stereo installs and that's what pointed me to it. No need to fully cover it with Dynamat and add the weight as is often done if you can tune out the noise with a smaller amount of the deadener.
 
I tested this my attaching the solenoid to a wood block separate from the door. The attachment to the door is going to make thinks even worse. I am going to use isolation mounts and Dynamat but I need to get the window regulator assembly out of there (for electric windows).

Like that description of the crashing china cabinet. Sounds exactly like that.

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I put a 1/8" felt pad in the bottom of the solenoid. It is much quieter now.

Second thing I would like to do is switch it on with a 1/10 of a second pulse so that it will limit the power it consumes from the battery. The DC coil resistance is ~.60 ohms or 240 watts! That is basically a dead short on the battery. I suspect if you left it switched for a couple of seconds some bad things would happen.

problem is I have no idea how to do this.
 
I know how to do it with industrial controls, basically you need to find a timer to put into the relay circuit that will cut off the power relay after that 1/10 of a second. The problem with what we typically work with is that industrial components come industrially sized, much like your actuator. I'll see if I can find something smaller and more appropriate for a Corvette interior. Glad the felt pad worked out. That's a win!
 
I have an electronic module that you can do this with but the module has to be "on" to unlatch the door. So, if the car is sitting for a month, that module is drawing power. I am testing it to see if the door switch can switch on power and operate the timer at the same time. So, far I'm thinking that won't work.
 
Not sure why it would draw power unless it stay energized even after the cable is pulled.... basically it's an electron magnet - only draws to pull and shuts off once it's fully travelled its distance. To go the other way, the opposite magnet is energized..... if it didn't happen like that then you could have the Hyundai burning cars to the ground issue (their current recall - apparently if the switch to move the seat is held down, it never de-energizes so it eventually catches fire and burns the car down. No word whether anyone has considered that a true loss).
 
An intermittent switch makes contact when the button or toggle is push, when you let go it goes back to its normally open position.

There are one pulse switches if you search. They might not be high amps.
 
SuperBuickGuy said:
Not sure why it would draw power unless it stay energized even after the cable is pulled.... basically it's an electron magnet - only draws to pull and shuts off once it's fully travelled its distance. To go the other way, the opposite magnet is energized..... if it didn't happen like that then you could have the Hyundai burning cars to the ground issue (their current recall - apparently if the switch to move the seat is held down, it never de-energizes so it eventually catches fire and burns the car down. No word whether anyone has considered that a true loss).
Click to expand...

The coil isn't ON, the module that provides the pulse is ON.

I have an electronic module that you can do this with but the module has to be "on" to unlatch the door. So, if the car is sitting for a month, that module is drawing power.

rtj said:
An intermittent switch makes contact when the button or toggle is push, when you let go it goes back to its normally open position.

There are one pulse switches if you search. They might not be high amps.
Click to expand...

I'm not finding any switches that do this. This would trigger a relay so high current is not an issue.
 
I use a toggle switch for a starter button. Hold until engine starts and let go. This might be a similar switch.

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You can probably find some rated high enough or like you said have a relay.
 
I have an alternative to the solenoid that should solve a lot of problems with the solenoid. Its quiet, low power and should be reliable long term. The problem that this solves (while creating another problem) is you don't need any electronic control so it it doesn't need to be powered on forever 24/7.

The idea is that the momentary switch button would be on the outside of the door. When the button is pushed, the switch is bypassed, and the cam rotates. When the roller drops off the cam, the microswitch supplies +12v to the motor. Motor continues to rotates 360 degrees until the microswitch is actuated again, turning the motor off.

The problem is if the person holds the button too long, the motor will continue to turn until released. I think that may not be a problem because half a turn should unlatch the door and pop it open. However, this solves the problem of leaving the door control powered up at all times (that would be required for the module). Also, I question the durability of the module.

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