Yes the power locks are superceded to the eurovan power lock motors.
Cheesier design if you ask me.  I believe I can still get the OE Vanagon
door lock motors if someone needs them.  Also if you have some soldering
skills you can modify a sliding door or rear hatch power door lock motor
into a front door lock motor by opening it up and soldering a wire to a
copper contact that is there in all of the motors but only used in the
front door lock motors.  Just use your dead motor as a guide and you will
see what I mean.

Happy door locking!

Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
On Mar 5, 2012 7:42 PM, "Derek Drew" <derekdrew@derekmail.com> wrote:

> When you go to order a new door lock you will find that the old door
> locks are all superceded to 7D0 959 781A (or 7DO 959 781A). But to
> use the new door lock, you are supposed to use wiring harness adapter
> 701 972 390 (for the front two doors) or 701 972 390A (for the slider
> or hatch).  But the harness is expensive and may not be available
> when you are reading this.
>
> And truth be told, you really don't need the external add-on harness
> if you understand the pin-outs of the new door lock motor.
>
> I made the following diagram of the wire colors coming out of the
> motor and they are in a row like this: Brown, Red, Yellow, and White.
> These then connect to the corresponding color wires in the vehicle
> harness as follows: The red goes to a single conductor wire that goes
> to a red wire, and the Brown Yellow and White wire go to a
> tri-connector wire housing that connects to a tri-connector wire
> housing that should already be in your vehicle with those three color
> wires in it. Just connect the three wires so the colors
> correspond.  With that information, you would be able to make up your
> own little wiring harness if you were so inclined. Note that Red is
> not used in the sliding door or the rear hatch, only the front two
> doors. Below is my drawing of this.
>
> https://lh6.googleusercontent.**com/-8edV0f6J9w8/T1VaSDsA_bI/**
> AAAAAAAAAFM/EHgP3WJ-Rwc/s640/**701972390_Power_Door_Lock_**Harness.jpg<https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8edV0f6J9w8/T1VaSDsA_bI/AAAAAAAAAFM/EHgP3WJ-Rwc/s640/701972390_Power_Door_Lock_Harness.jpg>
>
> If you are really smart you will ask which side of the door lock the
> brown wire is on. It looks like I felt you could figure it out by
> looking at the text that says "door lock side" but better test it
> just to be sure.
>
> People on Samba also report good results by using non-VW door lock motors.
>
> (Search texts:
>
> 7D0-959-781A
> 7DO-959-781A
> 701-972-390
> 701-972-390A
> 7D0959781A
> 7DO959781A
> 701972390
> 701972390A
> 7D0 959 781 A
> 7DO 959 781 A
> 701 972 390
> 701 972 390 A
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________**_________________
> Derek Drew
> Washington DC / New York
> derekdrew@derekmail.com
> Email is best normally but...
> PHONE: 202-966-7907 (Call the number at left normally)
> (alt/cell for diligent calling only): 703-408-1532
>