Re keying door locks

[wal280z]

1 hour ago, Patcon said:

I was working more along the lines of being able to combine all the locks I have to rebuild a good set of locks all keyed together. I have a few locks to work with...

+1 here. I got a matching lock set without the door locks (doors were missing in the junkyard donor) and would like to have a full matching lock set as a spare.

[Captain Obvious]

So for those of you that I haven't scared off yet, I got a couple minutes to take a previously unmolested door lock apart. Here's a lock, my anvil holding fixture, and my home-brew face cap pliers:

For the pliers, I ground one tip down a little so it's slightly shorter than the other leg:

And I ground a radius into the jaws to kinda sorta fit the curve of the face caps. It's not a perfect match, but the intent is mostly to keep the corners from digging in and creasing the face cap material:

Here's another pic with a better view of the radius ground into the jaw:

Using those pliers, I am able to catch the lip of the face cap and straighten up the bent bead around the edge. Like this:

And after a couple minutes of careful prying and working my way around the lock a couple times, I end up with the lip pried up straight enough that the face cap can be popped off the front of the lock. Takes some finesse and "the knack", but in the end, it looks like this:

 

[Patcon]

3 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

So for those of you that I haven't scared off yet, I got a couple minutes to take a previously unmolested door lock apart. Here's a lock, my anvil holding fixture, and my home-brew face cap pliers:

For the pliers, I ground one tip down a little so it's slightly shorter than the other leg:

And I ground a radius into the jaws to kinda sorta fit the curve of the face caps. It's not a perfect match, but the intent is mostly to keep the corners from digging in and creasing the face cap material:

Here's another pic with a better view of the radius ground into the jaw:

Using those pliers, I am able to catch the lip of the face cap and straighten up the bent bead around the edge. Like this:

And after a couple minutes of careful prying and working my way around the lock a couple times, I end up with the lip pried up straight enough that the face cap can be popped off the front of the lock. Takes some finesse and "the knack", but in the end, it looks like this:

 

Now I have anvil envy!

[Captain Obvious]

    Yeah, I get that a lot.  You need a lathe, my friend.

Once you get the seam opened up, the face cap just pulls off the front of the lock:

And the cylinder slides out of the lock body:

Here's some of those corroded crusty tumbler wafers I was talking about earlier. However, despite the way it looks, this is actually the BEST door lock I've ever opened up. In fact, I wouldn't feel bad about reusing this one if I had to:

And here's a shot down into the lock corroded lock body. If you look closely you can see some grooving in the body where the tumblers have dug in:

And since I had the camera out, here's how the front face keyhole cover is held on. Note the dimples in the side where it was crimped into place. It's easy to just slide it off. Maybe use a small tool to un-bend the crimp a little bit if necessary:

[NVZEE]

One more reason to take updating locks seriously: old, worn locks and keys may have more in common than you realize.

Edited February 3, 2019 by NVZEE

[Zup]

Excellent photo tutorial and cautionary statements Capt'n.

Do you have any firsthand experience with the locks available on E-bay that purportedly "fits Datsun 240Z"? Do they have the requisite lugs cast into the cylinder carrier body? I have been unable to determine that for certain by the photos posted in the listings.

While I wish that statement to be true I am highly skeptical and thus far have been unwilling to invest $35-$40 to find out. If indeed they are compatible then they are certainly a bargain. I know the tabs at the rear of the locks where the linkage rods attach are shaped differently but that may be something that can be overcome with out great difficulty.

Can anyone confirm ?

[Patcon]

My concern with new locks is the metal. The older metal from Japan is far superior to most of the metal being used now.

[Mark Maras]

 The pot-metal? lock barrel seems like a good item to submit to an Aluminum 3D Printing Service to see if a group buy is feasible. 

[Captain Obvious]

10 hours ago, Zup said:

Do you have any firsthand experience with the locks available on E-bay that purportedly "fits Datsun 240Z"? Do they have the requisite lugs cast into the cylinder carrier body?

I'm not sure what requisite lugs you're talking about.

I do have first hand experience with some lock stuff from ebay, although since it's been a number of years since I messed with them. I'm not sure if what's available now is the same stuff that was available six or seven years ago, but back when I was doing my locks, the only locks that were being produced new were door locks and ignition locks and I they were being made in Taiwan (by ASP). I've never seen any new production for glove box or hatch locks. So back when I was doing all my locks, I purchased door locks and ignition lock stuff from ebay.

Be aware, however, that there are a couple different gotchas... First of which is that the really early cars used single sided keys and all that lock stuff is very different than what was used on the later cars. I don't know what constitutes "early" and "late" exactly, but I can guarantee that my 77 is "later" and I have absolutely no experience with the early single sided key stuff. I don't know if that's a 69-70 thing, or what.

Second possible gotcha is the key blank as there were a couple different blanks used (at least in the later years). By the time they got to 77 there were two blanks available which were a mirror image of each other. I'm not positive, but I believe this practice started in 74 with the 260.

The third gotcha is the length of the ignition cylinder and the number of tumblers included within. By the time they got to 77, the ignition locks used seven tumblers. But some year prior to that, the ignition locks only used six tumblers. So I'm not exactly sure on what year the change went into place, but at some point, they upped the number of tumblers from six to seven. I haven't researched it, but I believe all the door locks used six tumblers even into the later years.

The last gotcha is that the actuation arms on the 77-78 door locks are different than previous years and most of the ebay door locks won't work. I did a quick check and there was at least one seller that had stuff that was 77-78 specific, but the point is, if you're looking for 77-78 stuff (which I know you are not), you have one extra hurdle to overcome.

So the summary is.... If you're going to buy lock stuff off ebay, make sure it uses the correct (mirror) blank. And if it's an ignition lock you're buying, make sure it has the appropriate number of tumblers (six or seven - also referred to as "short" or "long" body). And if you're looking for door locks for 77-78, make sure you get the ones with the correct actuator arm.

Wow. Lots of words. Sorry.

[Captain Obvious]

Here's a pic of the ignition lock I bought off ebay for my 77. My 280 uses the Taylor X7 key blank also known as Silca DAT6R blank. I believe the mirror image locks are Taylor X6 and DAT6L.

There are seven tumblers, although the careful reviewer will notice that there are actually eight slots in the cylinder. The eighth one is not actuated by the key and is simply a retainer to keep the cylinder from pulling out of the lock body. It's not counted as a tumbler. So this is what my 77 280 uses. I'm not sure if the longer seven tumbler locks will fit into the earlier assemblies that were originally designed for the six tumbler versions:

 

 

[jfa.series1]

@Captain Obvious Did you see my PM?

[Captain Obvious]

Sorry. I was off-line for a day. Just sent you PM.