Fitted remote central locking, the Response LR-8842 kit from Jaycar. This solved the issue of the key locks not quite unlocking the car and having to lift the door handle at the same time as unlocking, needing two hands - not cool while carrying stuff. I think this is essentially from wear and tear due to age. I hadn't been able to adjust out this behaviour. The added benefit will be the old key and lock not wearing out so much anymore, and giving the impression that it might not be so easy to break in or steel this old heap.
The instructions are minimal to non-existent, but adequate considering every single installation is going to be custom. There's an "immobiliser" switch and wiring included and their wiring diagram doesn't make any sense since it'd be unlikely to actually disable the car at all... I didn't need that anyway.
There's some wires off the central locking unit I didn't need for power windows, sunroof and trunk (that reminds me, will have to get a Trunk Monkey one day
). Also includes two remotes and all the fitting hardware.
While you're out and about getting your remote central locking kit, also check your doors and door frames for holes suitable for running wires through (or drill them) and get some grommets and heat shrink. I'm going to get one of those kits of body parts remover tools one day for the Jesus-Clips ("Jesus! Where did that go?" or "Jesus! Why won't that freakin thing come out?")
in the door hanles and window handles. A couple of my door handles needed a bit of work to get off, and needed glue and all sorts of things removed from the splines and returned to original condition to get them to fit back on properly later. They'd always been like that and now I've fixed them properly.
My advice would be to run all the wiring and mount the control unit first, then mount the solenoids in the doors - this is so you can connect the solenoids to the wiring before fixing the solenoids in place as the connectors are extremely difficult to get to once the solenoids are fitted. I used some heat shrink over the wiring where it ran across mid-air between the body and doors. Arrange the wiring so it will twist if possible and not kink when the doors close - if it comes out of the body at a low point, run it up vertical a bit and into the door so the vertical length will just twist a bit rather than kink or fold. Those amongst you with electrical experience will realise the "electrico-mechanical" units are not actually solenoids, but small 12volt DC motors with a gear and a toothed bar - but I'll keep calling them solenoids since they have that simple push/pull motion. Probably Actuator is a better word, but what the hell...
Rear door solenoid fitted
I wanted to test a solenoid first to make sure every thing worked and the door would actually lock and unlock, so I fitted up a solenoid to a rear door (easiest to get at, least impact if it all goes bad) and temporarily rigged up the wiring. All worked as expected, so I continued on fitting the rest of the solenoids. The drivers door solenoid has an inbuilt switch and extra wires so unlocking or locking the door manually also triggers the rest of the solenoids. There's two wires that go the existing left/right indicator wires to flash the indicators. I connected them into the mutipin connector between the under-dash wiring and the steering column - my connector there is a normal off the shelf 6way one, not the standard datsun connector since I threw them and all the standard wiring away in the bin a long time ago.
The front door internal-door-handle-operating-bar needed a bit of bending so it didn't hit against the lock rods. Note that as standard it already hit against the standard lock rod, but with the added bulk of the solenoid connection clamp I though I'd best make it operate without clashing. You can see in the pic where I'd had to straighten the bar a bit and rebend it - using the old 1912 pliers (and cheap nasty modern day vice grips and multigrips). You have to undo the two screws holding the inner door handle pivot in place to modify the bar. The photo with flash makes it look a bit of a dogs breakfast but in reality the bends looked bettter than in the photo (true!).
Front door inner handle operating bar needs "adjustment"
Solenoid fitted and push/pull rod in front door
Solenoid mounting in front door
THIS is a real set of pliers made in 1912, that's a full size no.3 philips screw driver there for comparison
The push/pull rods that come with the kit need a bit of dog-leg bend so they pull straight on the original mechanism, and cut to size.
I wired the power up to the battery-side of the battery cutoff switch, so the remote locking will work even if the battery key is removed. I took the opportunity to replace the battery cut-off switch too, since the old one was sometimes not working well enough to handle the starter motor current.
Been into town and back a couple of times, the dirt roads and bumps didn't cause any false triggering, and all still works as expected. The bitumen roads have the worse bumps, it's easier for me to go faster on the dirt roads.
A prize to anyone that can correctly guess the number of non-standard holes drilled on the inside of all my doors, and you can see in the photos there's LOTS !
Prize may be a non-working datsun 180b brake booster shipped at the winners expense