Rear-center-mounted power door actuator

In a power drive system for a sliding door mounted on at least one side of a vehicle for sliding movement forwardly and rearwardly of the vehicle along a fixed nonlinear path between an open position and a closed position with respect to a frame defining a door opening, said system including reversible power drive means operable when actuated to selectively drive said door in opening or closing movement, said sliding door being operably engageable with first and second guide tracks generally extending along first and second opposite edges respectively of said sliding door, and latch means for holding the sliding door in the closed position, the latch means including a fork bolt and a striker engageable with one another in a secondary latch position wherein said fork bolt and said striker are partially engaged and a primary latch position wherein said fork bolt and said striker are fully engaged, the improvement to the power drive system comprising:

• a bracket operably connected to said sliding door adjacent a rear edge generally midway between said first and second opposite edges of said sliding door;
• guide means connected to said vehicle generally midway between said first and second opposite edges, and operably engaging said bracket for guiding said sliding door along said fixed nonlinear path between said open and closed positions of said sliding door;
• elongated means slidably disposed within said guide means and connected to said bracket for driving said sliding door along said fixed nonlinear path, said elongated means having first and second longitudinal ends spaced apart from one another, the first end of said elongated means being connectible to said bracket for pulling said sliding door from said open position to said closed position and for pushing said sliding door from said closed position to said open position;
• and
• translator means operably engageable with said elongated means for powering movement of said elongated means with respect to said guide means along said fixed nonlinear path, said translator means being disposed adjacent an edge of said frame defining said door opening generally midway between said first and second guide tracks.