Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

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slowcoach
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Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by slowcoach »

So ive never been happy with any of the locks on my van. I had 3 keys, and the only one that felt 'not sloppy' was the ignition, which was replaced after 1 day (!) of owning the van, when the barrel collapsed and failed leaving us stranded in a locking car park in winter.

CAB DOOR LOCKS

I bought 2 new cab door lock cylinders from 'custom and commercial', which came with 2 keys each. I used this excellent guide to remove and dismantle the cab handles.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... sc&start=0

I re-tumbled the two new lock cylinders to the same key, by re-ordering the tumblers/wafers, and lightly filing down one or perhaps 2 of the brass non complying tumblers to make them flush. Im a bit dissapointed at the quality of the pictures i took (my girlfriend was away and had taken the camera!), so im not covering that here, though you can find that somewhere else im sure. Its not hard- golden rule is dont take the key out of the cylinder without making sure the tumblers/wafers wont fly out the window. just keep your fingers around the barrell as you go. I even enjoyed the puzzle aspect to it. Just keep everything clean and concentrate!

TAILGATE (MINE IS LATE, BUT EARLY IS VERY SIMILAR)

remove the three 6mm allen heads on the tailgate..
Image

Two parts will now be loose- the mechanism, and the lock barrell housing. nothing else sprang out or separated. Wiggle them out and onto the bench.
Image

bit of a clean up and it all looks nicer..
Image

the long lever on it is a factory modification welded on, so it can be unlocked from inside. Its quite common i believe , but not standard vw.

The lock housing has a rolled spring pin on the back, which needs tapping out with a suitable punch
Image
halfway out...
Image

and then she comes apart. you can see the pin, lever arm and barrel coming out.
Image

Same again, degrease, clean up, and re-tumble to the new key. Pop it back into the housing, check it works, then carefully tap the pin back through to seal the unit and hook it all back into the van. done!

SLIDER

By this point I understood how they all worked. C&C were out of stock for the slider lock cylinders, so i thought id just refurb the one i had and re-tumble it to the new key. Theres a point where the lock cylinder itself (not the brass wafers) are worn, and the key guides themselves are a bit past it. This creates the wobbly key syndrome. Mine wasnt too bad, but ill probably replace it for new at some point though. A good degrease and clean out does wonders anyway. My pictures are terrible for this so to avoid confusion im not putting them up. I think its in another thread though!

FUEL CAP

The next day, after id thrown my old worn keys into the bin i remembered about the petrol cap. phew! the lock cylinder is very similar, but shorter. My key only ever goes in half way- i believe some use different keys, but mine uses the same one. the cylinder is shorter, with less wafers..

Image

the back..
Image

tap the pin out with a suitable punch..
Image

bit of a pop when you knock that pin out because of the spring, so keep a hold of it all, and keep track of all the bits, and their order! this pic is only some of them, the base ring was actually 3 pieces by the time id fiddled and cleaned it all up..
Image

when i re-tumbled the petrol cap cylinder, the wafers didnt spring out at all, i had to pull them out with the pliers. not because of gunk, but a little notch in each wafer.

====

and thats it. keep your head down do it when everyone's out, and remember to not let the wafers pop out - ie, keep the key in at all times, and when you have to take it out, be careful. get everything clean with degreaser and a toothbrush and water flush. I did mine while the van was out on the street, one lock at a time. it would have been better in a garage, but just keep an eye out the window i guess!
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by Cruz »

Good write up Slowcoach. Your petrol cap should have a short key in an ideal world :lol:

I also see you have a posh tailgate latch that has the bar for opening the tailgate from the inside?

Another thing to look out for regarding cab door handles are large scores in the bore of the handle where the barrel sits. Over time the springs that operate the little wafers lose their spring and coupled with years of gunk it stops the wafers from pulling in properly when the key is inserted. This means the key is wiggled a bit to make it work and over time the wafers make deep scores in the handle which can mean that no matter how much you clean the barrel and stretch the springs the handle can still be opened using someone else's key or even any key that fits the slot.

This happened to me and in this situation new handles are needed, which come with new barrels and two keys. I also had this problem with my early tailgate lock. Expect 2nd hand handles to be just as worn as yours

At least I now know nobody can enter the van using spurious keys.........they now need a brick, screwdriver or coathanger :rofl

As for the sliding door handle there is a picture of where the spring should go when re-assembling the lock barrel at this link http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... g#p7736354" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is a small flat head grub screw that needs removing in order to get the barrel out. The spring referenced above has two protruding legs that slide down slots in the barrel hole and a little wiggle of the lock with the key in makes them seat when re-assembling

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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by slowcoach »

youre right about the scoring on the inside of the handles, made by the wafers being forced around with the key. Mine werent too bad and only showed some shallow grooves, but really i think i wasnt ready to stump up 70 or 80 quid per new handle! :cry:

heres a fuzzy shot of the grub screw in the slider handle (part unscrewed), after finding it under the greasy crud..
Image
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by Cruz »

Is that how much cab handles are now? WOW. I got a pair of genuine ones for that back in the day

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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by Paul_Van_Denton »

Loosely on topic here, does anyone know if you can fit golf mk2 handles? Are they the same size?
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by Cruz »

NoI doubt it. But anything can be made to fit if you've too much time on your hands

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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by Cruz »

Slowcoach your pictures have disappeared

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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by slowcoach »

Cruz wrote:Slowcoach your pictures have disappeared

ah.. ok i can fix that. ive just changed web hosting.

thanks for the tipoff!
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by Hedges »

Another post resurrection.
Great post and will be attempting this tomorrow as two locks are not working and one need jiggling.
Only thing is, what is the re-tumbling? Is this replacing the wafers, changing them about or just simply cleaning them?
Cheers
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by CovKid »

Replacing - as required. Best not to use old tumblers if possible as they are usually far too worn but sometimes you have no choice. However, NEVER file down a wafer to fit or you'll increase the range of keys that will fit the lock tenfold.
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by Hedges »

Cheers.
Where stocks replacements?
Ian
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by slowcoach »

Re tumbling is to re order (or replace) the wafers so you can use a different key. Perhaps to set all locks to the same key like I did.
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by CovKid »

New wafer packs not cheap. They sometimes appear on ebay otherwise you have to search for VW Lock Wafers. What generally happens is someone buys a set then sells on whats left etc etc.
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by slowcoach »

CovKid wrote:New wafer packs not cheap. They sometimes appear on ebay otherwise you have to search for VW Lock Wafers. What generally happens is someone buys a set then sells on whats left etc etc.

yeah, hard to find. If you did just buy a couple of new lock barrels though as i did, they obviously come with new wafers in them, then youll have enough to do what you need to. But a good dismantle and clean up does wonders by itself.

My slider door lock can be locked from the outside (nice and smooth operation) but not opened... not taken it apart again yet to find out whats wrong!
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Re: Lock Dismantling guide, with Pictures

Post by craigy345 »

slowcoach wrote:
CovKid wrote:New wafer packs not cheap. They sometimes appear on ebay otherwise you have to search for VW Lock Wafers. What generally happens is someone buys a set then sells on whats left etc etc.

yeah, hard to find. If you did just buy a couple of new lock barrels though as i did, they obviously come with new wafers in them, then youll have enough to do what you need to. But a good dismantle and clean up does wonders by itself.

My slider door lock can be locked from the outside (nice and smooth operation) but not opened... not taken it apart again yet to find out whats wrong!

Have you tried locking and unlocking with the sliding for open? to confirm its not the catch as apposed to the lock?

Also these keys like most car keys are 'convenience keys' meaning they will work regardless of what way they fit into the lock i.e 180 or 360.
This means if there is wear on the key it may work better one way than the other. you may find turning the key 180 then inserting into the lock will help?
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