equipping '96 Mystique with trunk solenoi

I have a 1996 Mercury Mystique. Currently, to open the trunk, I pull a small lever that, I'm assuming, pulls a cable that's routed to the trunk and releases the trunk so that I can open it. What I'd like to do is replace that lever with a solenoid somewhere than can be controlled by both a switch in the car and the trunk opener on my Autopage RF-405a. I'm completely new to solenoids though, so I don't know what to look for as far as the pulling force and distance needed to make this work. I sketched up a diagram of the wiring, is this feasible?

Thanks for the info. I probably should have looked at my alarm's diagram to find out the polarity of the trunk switch, it's probably negative, as your diagram shows. Do you have any idea how much current it pulls? The way I hooked it up ran the switch through the relay too, but I suppose I wouldn't have to do that if it didn't pull too much.

Yeah double check the trunk output polarity as that will change the relay setup a bit.  As far as the current draw, the 522T comes with a 10 amp fuse, others will vary depending on their pull.  I'm sure the heavy duty solenoids will draw more current.  Your always safer using a relay than not especially when using the weak trunk output from an alarm, they usually are only rated at 200-250ma.  Only enough to support a relay.  Good luck.

Thanks for the info! My keyless unit (Autopage rf-405A) has enough power to run the flashers straight through, so that's not bad. I did use a relay for the horn, though. I'll definitely use a relay before the solenoid, and I'll most likely run the switch behind the relay just to be on the safe side.

I'm not familiar with your autopage, but most likely that unit has relays built in to drive the parking light or it would have burned out by now.  Good deal on the relay for the remote trunk trigger, it will burn out if you try to trigger the solenoid directly from it.  Have fun with it.

I supposed it would have to be something like that...on one side of the unit, the power, ground, lights, and horn come in/out, and the power wire has a 15 amp fuse in it, so I'd assume it can take that much. The other side has the other side has the extra function triggers, and I'm assuming they wouldn't have be on the internal relay. So it sounds like the relay I used to hook up my horn isn't necessary, and I can use that relay for the trunk solenoid...good deal.