Rekeying door, boot and fuel flap locks

[peteracs]

Hi All

Following on from a recent thread re locks and rekeying, I thought I would strip one down and see how easy it is to rekey the lock. I have a reason as do many I suspect as my car has the two door locks the same key, but different for the fuel flap and a third for the boot. I also ha e only one set of keys, so all in all very unsatisfactory and I really did not want 4 keys on the key ring just for this one car, two is plenty.

So I grabbed one of the spare door locks I had from a scrapped car and set to taking it apart. I assume that the fuel flap and the boot locks are similar if not exactly the same as far as fittings go, but the basic key/lock operation will be the same.

The first job on the door handle mechanism is to remove the end ciclip which is very small and not so easy to remove, you need either a small set of circlip pliers or patience with screwdrivers etc. After this is removed, you can take the main part of the lock from the door mechanism. This reveals the pin which sits through the barrel, this just slides out, then remove the round washer which has a tab pushed between the tails of the spring. Remove the larger ciclip, this one is easy with a small screwdriver and remove the washer and spring.

The first photo is a parts explosion excluding any pins of the door lock.

The lock now just comprises of the inner barrel and outer casing which at this point can not be separated due to the internal pins. Removing these is a fairly simple matter. On the outer casing are two protrusions with a slot in each. The slot has a cover plate which needs to be gently tapped out with a small screwdriver towards the key insertion end. The next photo below shows the plate half way out. Once started it can be removed with a set of pliers, but be gentle with it as it needs to be reused....! As you are removing the plate ensure you do not lose any of the springs which will emerge from the holes drilled in the inner barrel. Once the plate is taken off empty out the springs, below the springs are some small buckets and below them are the pins used to form the key ‘combination’. Next two photos are of the springs, buckets and pins. Once you have removed all you can from one side, repeat the procedure on the opposite side. You should have 10 springs, buckets and pins.

[peteracs]

Now the lock is apart, understanding how it works is the next part before you can progress.

If you look at any key you will see either cutouts or round holes, see photo. I assume cutouts are factory and the round holes are aftermarket key cutters given my keys with serial nos have cutouts and the non serial key has holes. Either is good enough from what I can tell. If you look closely there are three possible conditions, either no hole, a shallow hole or deeper hole. Each key has 10 positions for holes. The holes are mirrored on each side of the key allowing insertion either way round. The corresponding holes in the inner barrel are offset from the centre line so that one set of 5 pins line up with one side of the key and the other 5 line up with the other side of the key.

The cutouts decide how far in any of the pins will go into the inner barrel, as such there are 3 different pin lengths. Each pin has a narrow portion which is the part in contact with the key and a broader part which stops the pin going too far. It is this broader section which varies in size. So in order to match the lock to a key, you have to match pin lengths to cutouts in the key, such that when the key is in the inner barrel, all the pins sit flush with the surface of the inner barrel. When this is completed, the inner barrel can be reinserted into the outer casing and then the buckets with springs inserted into them can be inserted into the 10 holes. The cover plate can then be replaced, pressure will be required to press down on the springs to allow the plate to slide in.

Then check the lock is functioning ok before assembling the rest of the circlips, spring and washers.

Hopefully it should now all work.

The only issue with the above is the number of the different size pins you start with and need to complete. The lock I took apart had 3 long, 4 medium, 3 small pins (see photo above) and I needed 4 long, 3 medium, 3 small. In this instance I was lucky enough to have spare locks to cannibalise. If you have too many long pins, you could file down the pin to match the one you need.

An alternative is that anyone who has spare locks being happy to provide an exchange service. I for one would be happy to do this, so anyone looking for pins could contact me.

I hope this helps someone, and hope I made the process clear!

Peter

[WestonE]

Hi Peter

Nice work and correct. BTW The keys with cross cuts are less aggressive on the lock so this is the kind you want cut if you can get them. Most people have spare locks to take the bits from. You can do this job without taking the full lock apart by removing the paul side plates but it is hard to get the pauls the right length.

Eric

[HFStuart]

Model post I'd say - great stuff.

[MattNoVAT]

Excellent post Peter, this will help numerous folk out there.

I'm now wondering if anyone has made their own "spare key" as I've seen blank door keys on Fleabay before, so providing you have your original how hard can it be to drill holes?  (I'm guessing the depths of the holes as well as their location needs to be exact)

[WestonE]

Hi Matt

Definitely a precision job cutting the keys and simple with the right cutting machine.

Eric

[peteracs]

Thanks all, hope it does allow some to resolve the multiple key issue.

As you mention Eric, the accuracy of the cutout or hole would need to be high as the difference in the pin heights between the long and short pins is small as well as the tolerance on aligning with the surface of the inner barrel needs to be fairly accurate to allow the barrel to spin.

You also mention it is possible to replace the pins/pauls without removing the inner barrel, which is very true and I would think once you become skilled at deciphering which pins are required where, this would be a quicker way to go.

I also would imagine that one of the problems long term with these locks is that the pins may ‘wear’ which would make the lock difficult to open, or is the key material softer and hence the key wears more?

Peter

[Neil-yaj396]

Hi Matt

Definitely a precision job cutting the keys and simple with the right cutting machine.

Eric

My first ie had a 'home made' key. A roughly cut flat piece of brass with the dimples produced with a metal punch on one side only. It worked remarkably well (on one side!) and unlike the spare keys that I had professionally cut for YAJ worked on the boot.

[WestonE]

My donor Spider came with a universal boot lock i.e. it had no lock pauls at all and would open with anything flat? Now in the dead lock graveyard having been stripped for the housing and spring.

Eric

[Nigel]

Peter,
This post is very timely. In my scenario,I have an original fuel cap with no key.[the one that came with the car is an ugly aftermarket]
I've got it stripped to the barrel. Now I know what to do!

And if I need spare pins,i'm happy to 'borrow' from the glovebox lock,possibly leaving said lock
with fewer pins but still working as a lock.

I'll post the results.
Great post,thanks!

Nigel

[just noticed: this post is #100!]

[peteracs]

Hi Nigel

Thanks, this was prompted by an earlier thread about a fuel flap lock without a key where it was mentioned that you can rekey the lock.

The theory is pretty straight forward, but my first attempt to rekey my boot lock is proving a little frustrating. To add to the photos of locks, here is the exploded parts of the boot lock on my Spider.

Peter

[Nigel]

I've now had success in matching my key to an arbitrary fuel cap.
I found that this lock barrel only utilised 6 of the 10 positions. The other 2 are blanked off.
This gave me fewer pin sizes to work with, but no matter, I fitted 2 opposing
pins etc,and now she works.

I now need a rubber seal for this cap......!

NB; The ring at the base of this cap come off fairly easily by using a couple of small screwdrivers
to prize it out. The rest of the disassembly is straightforward.

[rossocorsa]

You say it's straightforward, so how does it come apart it's not obvious from the photos? I have one that I need to do

[peteracs]

Hi

Hopefully all will be revealed, but I personally do not have one to look at.

I did however take the fuel filler cap one to pieces to rekey today and here is a photo of the parts. (This was before I cleaned it...)

Rekeying was simple on this one, just installed the correct pins and worked straight away, not so for the boot lock.... see next post.

Peter

[peteracs]

The boot lock appeared to be a simple re-pin, how hard could it be? The answer is a right royal pain in the bum.

Then theory was simple, make a note of the cutouts on the key and select the pins and.... it did not work and no matter what I tried, lubrication, checked pin lengths which were all within a small tolerance, the best I managed was a very difficult lock to turn with the key in it.

I then spent a while looking at the seating of the pins with the key in place and a number of them were sitting just below the height of the inner barrel. This was the fundamental problem. I have no idea why this lock resulted in this as the fuel filler lock pins when inserted came up flush with the top of the inner barrel. So what to do?

The holes for the pins are located on a flattened part of the inner barrel. This gives some tolerance to the lock and keys. I used a file to increase this flat until all the pins sat flush or slightly higher than this flat on the inner barrel. I was careful to remove just enough metal as too much could result in more than one key code opening the lock, even though it highly unlikely anyone would have such a key.

The end result was a working lock, though way too much time spent getting it sorted including the odd lost spring. I am still not sure why the lock should be like this as the original key (round hole type) worked in it perfectly.

Peter

[Nigel]

You say it's straightforward, so how does it come apart it's not obvious from the photos? I have one that I need to do

Alan, hopefully the photos will be in the correct order.
The ring pops out first, the centre aly cap comes off the plastic outer, seen now is the locking pawl
and its spring, and then the barrel pushes out from the front. There's an O ring and a sleeve which get
left behind inside the barrel housing. Upon reassembly, I lubed the barrel with a tiny bit of silicon spray.

[rossocorsa]

Jolly good I'll have a go sometime, I have a key for my cap but it doesn't lock so needs looking at and it would be nice to match to the doors

[peteracs]

Thanks Nigel, pretty well gives us a complete set, I am assuming the boot locks for the HPE, Coupe and Saloon are very similar to the Spider.

Peter

[peteracs]

I had of course forgotten the glove box lock....

I tried my original key and it did not lock it, so assuming it was for a different key I took it apart and found that it was the correct lock for the key, it just did not work, see below for breakdown photo. Stripping down is not as simple as with the other locks in that there is a 6th pin on one of the rows and this is used as a securing pin to stop the inner barrel coming away from the outer and no obvious way of extracting it. I resorted to drilling it out which was a bit messy. It was at this point my one and only key broke in half........

Luckily the key I had was an original and has the code stamped on it, I also found the same code on the plastic end of the glove box lock. On receiving a couple of replacements, (see later for details), I tried putting the lock back together, and essentially it works, but there is one big problem, the inner barrel has a slot in the casting and for the life of me I cannot see how the lock will work unless there was some sort of filler in there which I did not see when I took it apart. So if anyone has taken one of these apart before please get in touch. As it stands the key correctly allows the barrel to move, but halfway round the springs and buckets fall into this slot and stop the barrel moving any further, either backwards or forwards. Failing an answer the slot will get filled in to resolve it!

[peteracs]

New keys. I know this has been mentioned on other threads, but thought I would add it here for completeness. If others have had good experience with other suppliers, feel free to add it as well, this is my experience.

I contacted

JOHN RICHARD SECURITY PRODUCTS (WIRRAL) LIMITED   
202A PENSBY ROAD
HESWALL
WIRRAL
CH60 7RJ

TEL 0151 342 2318 / 4074
FAX 0151 342 3273

info@locksnkeys.co.uk

After an email, John rang me and confirmed they can cut keys from codes. He quoted £10 each door key and £5 for the ignition and £2 for postage. A bit old school as he wanted cash sent, but money sent, the keys arrived after a week and they are the slot version rather than the hole version for the door key and the ignition is a more conventional key, though interestingly it has the code on the key. Others have also had good experience with them which is why I chose them.