Has anyone ever installed these in preparation for an alarm? If so, how did you mount them inside the door?

Obviously, they have to be oriented facing the lock, as thats the design.

Great when the battery dies.....

Installed many of them but not in a 914. Bolt them to the inner door frame. Use a cable to actuate the door lock mechanism. Cables let you use the manual handles without any binding. They just slack up a bit. You can use bellcranks or pulleys to get around stuff if you need to. I always ran wires for a backup power source. That way you could get in the car if your battery died.

They will not work correctly due to the type of lock the 914 uses. They are made for a car that has standard plunger type door locks. The 914 lock is part of the interior handle. You may be able to make it "sort of" work but it will never work really good.

I used them for pop doors where it opened the door not locked/unlocked it. Wouldn't know how to use it on the 914 locking mechanism.

Looks like it's time to spice up my progress thread then...

Here's how mine were done by a alarm/remote keyless entry installer, and they work fine.

Click to view attachment

The installer unfortunately butchered the door a bit more than I would have liked, but I'm sure you could do a much less destructive install along the same lines. The lock motor simply pulls and pushes on the same rod that the door handle does to lock/unlock the door. If you have speakers in the door, this location for the lock motor may not be accessible to you, in which case it's nature's way of telling you to go back to the stock speaker location and repair your door panels. And yes, the doors on my car have been replaced, voluntarily in my case, to get the late window lift mechanism on my early ('70) car.

Before you install those and try to make them work, pull out the latch mechanism and clean it really well, then relube and reinstall. An latch that operates smoothly will greatly decrease the wear on that little motor.

Most definitely. I'm trying to decide whether I should just get new ones also....

New ones? There's nothing to wear on them. Cleaned and lubed are as good as you can get.

I just leave my car unlocked. If they are going to steal it, door locks won't stop them.