Cabrio Door locks

[peterboat]

Re: Cabrio Door locks

Hi Alan,
We are going to be there in the afternoon, if you PM me your phone number I can call you and confirm times etc

[dave_kitson]

Re: Cabrio Door locks

Hi - I looked into this in some detail about 10 years ago. Unless the builder was going really off-piste, the door furniture all came from the Ford Sierra. In fact most other locks are too bulky to fit the shallow Cabrio doors. There are a few things to be aware of:

1. Do you have a SWB or LWB Cabrio? The doors on the latter are two inches longer, and the inner handles are thus further away from the locks.
2. Early Sierras used rods to the inner handles whereas later ones used Bowden cables. Rods are more robust but the cables are easier to fit. Weak point on the cables is the ferule where the cable goes into the lock - I broke a few so I know! Never did find a satisfactory repair. Interestingly, the Cabrio used the bolt type striker from the early Sierra, rather than the later loop type striker, though some builders may have found a way of using the loops. Not difficult to make a bolt type from, would you believe, a bolt!
3. The cables vary in length depending where they were fitted. The notes I have are a bit vague, but this this should point you in the right direction:

2-door - - - - - - 640mm?
4-door - front - 590mm
- - - - - - rear - 770mm?
Estate - front - 590mm
- - - - - - rear - 500mm?
P100 - - - - - - - 640mm?

The practical upshot of this is that the 590mm cables will fit the SWB Cabrio, but the LWB Cabrio really needs the 640 or 770mm cables.

When I did this investigation, the 4-door rear cables were available new from Ford, but not the others. I doubt you can get any now. Last place I saw any number of scrap Sierras was at Birch Bros, Queensbury, near Bradford 01274 834921, but I haven't been near there in ages. The guy running it did seem more interested in selling complete cars than parts, but as he had his eye on 7-type kits, maybe door bits could be prised away from him!!!

Hope that fills in some gaps - Dave

[peterboat]

Re: Cabrio Door locks

Cheers Dave,
I hqave 2 of the longer cables from Alan [or will tomorrow] It really does need the longer cables even for the SWB as that seems to be the problem I will post when I have changed the passenger cable and fingers crossed it works

[chris_cussen]

Re: Cabrio Door locks

I used some cables from a 2 door Fiesta for the door pulls. Can't remember which year it came off, so Serrias are not the only source for the cables. Got them from a scrapyard.

[peterboat]

Re: Cabrio Door locks

Now have the said cables so will sort it soon
Thanks Alan you saved me a lot of hassle finding something that gets scarcer everyday

[Mike]

Re: Cabrio Door locks

I used some cables from a 2 door Fiesta for the door pulls. Can't remember which year it came off, so Sierras are not the only source for the cables. Got them from a scrapyard.

That's very useful knowledge Chris.

(I used Granada internal door handles, so there are other sources for those too).