Project 76: my notes on lock re-keying

[bigchillcar]

Passenger side door lock didn't work so thinking that it had been re-keyed and wanting to match it up with the driver side, I decided to do Wayne's Project 76 this weekend. I won't include a photo of disassembly of the interior door panel because I'll assume everyone can figure this out. After removal of the side panel, there is a hole about the size of a penny in the painted metal framing that allows access to one of the bolts holding the door handle. You'll need a socket with extension to reach. The other nut is reached easily without effort. Once these bolts are out the entire door handle can be taken to the bench.


Turned out in my case the lock hadn't been re-keyed in the past, but was simply badly corroded. The pics are to help visualize what the tumbler assembly looks like. There is a screw at the back of the door handle where the lever actually moves that has to be removed to pull the tumbler assembly out.

[img]http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/Im000363a.jpg
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The tumbler assembly in my '74 held 10 tumblers and the assembly had to be soaked for about an hour in WD-40 before I could remove them even with needle nose pliers. Keep track of the order of the tumblers, they have numbers stamped on them, i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 4. Once cleaned and polished up a bit, put them back in and grease well with white lithium grease. Without the key in the tumbler assembly, they'll be sticking up like in one of the photos. Once the key is inserted, the tumblers are pulled in and and flush with the outside of the assembly's housing. This is what allows the cylinder to rotate within the lock. Thus, if the wrong key is inserted into the lock, the tumblers won't sink and become flush in the cylinder to turn and unlock the door. That's it...it wasn't difficult and if you think you have a lock that needs re-keying it may just be corroded like mine was. Plan on 2-3 hours to do the whole job counting removal and replacement of the door panel, etc. Hope my pics show up!
Ryan

[bigchillcar]

This is the missing pic.
Ryan

[bigchillcar]

Anyone else contemplated doing this?
Ryan

[david914]

I actually did this to the ignition switch in the SC a week ago. Wasn't that hard. The most difficult part was removing the ignition switch assembly from the car. Once out, everything went rather smoothly. My problem was the start "ratchet" in the switch, for lack of a better term, was getting to where it would prevent me from starting the car. Fortunately, it only required cleaning and lubing to get that part fixed.

I doctered up the tumbler assembly while I was in there. Since my keys have all worn down to the point where they will cause the lock to bind somethimes, I filed/ground down a few of the tumblers to match the worn profile of the keys. Now it all works like new! For those of you who have shyed away from working on your own locks, I say GO FOR IT! Just be careful with all of the little springs and other parts and you'll be fine!

[bigchillcar]

Yeah, I'll admit that I felt a tad 'manlier' (a little cocky) upon finishing the job...my girlfriend was appreciative as it benefits her the most! I have a problem with the electrical portion of my ignition switch...occasionally I have to jiggle back there to get power to come on...it's a matter of time before I'll have to go to the same trouble of removing the damn thing.
Ryan

[david914]

Yeah, while I was fiddling with the switch, I noticed that the electrical portion didn't "feel right". I opened it up and discovered that part of the Bakelight part inside was broken. I ended up ordering a new electrical portion as part of my PCA gift certificate purchase (the rest was spent on a Porsche car cover). BTW, I know there has been prior discussion on the removal of the ignition switch assembly, but I discovered something that I hadn't seen mentioned here before. The two "tamper resistant" screws that hold the switch in place can be removed from the rear using a small screwdriver. The rear of the screws are slotted. I have seen this mentioned here before. When I went to remove the switch using this method, I found that I couldn't access the top screw very easily, if at all from below the dash. What I discovered was that Porsche has provided an access hole that allows you to insert a screwdriver from inside the trunk and get to the screw! There is a plastic plug that you can feel if you reach above the switch near the top tamper screw. Go into the trunk, remove this plug and you'll be able to see the rear of the screw. Another example of fine Porsche engineering!

[bigchillcar]

David, you are the man (reading your post, head nodding, smiling)! I got a set of about a thousand micro screwdrivers for xmas that I bet will be perfect for that job. Good, every time my girl thinks I'm done I can always find a great new project to help fill weekend time in the garage! Man, that's great to hear...I was not looking forward to breaking those screws...the whole reason I haven't done it to date.
Ryan

[Leland Pate]

I was going to do this here pretty soon as well.
I just had a new key cut for the ignition. i ran into the problem of finding a place that can cut a Porsche key.
I managed to find a place and now have a super cool looking Lighted Porsche key for the ignition.
The problem is it binds slightly sometimes. I want to pull the lock and file down the tumblers until they're flush if in fact one is slightly sticking.

Then I want to get rid of the door key by rekeying the door locks to fit the ignition key.
I haven't looked yet but I'm hoping Pelican carries rekeying kits.

Bravo on the project!

[bigchillcar]

Thanks Leland,

For the doors I'd suggest perhaps trying a different combination of the tumblers you already have. In fact, you can even choose to eliminate a couple to make it work...it will reduce the security, but realistically by how much? Also you could file existing ones as well. As you know, when you insert the key, the tumblers should sink in and become flush with the cylinder so it's easy to know when you have it working right. I couldn't find a place that sold tumblers, but it turned out that I didn't need them anyway. I'll bet you can make it work just playing with the ones you have. My 'combination' was something like in order...1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 2, 3, etc. In other words I had several 2's and just a few 3's and 4's, etc. It's hard to tell from the pic, but 5 of the tumblers are inserted from one side and five from the other. You want to push them out with a very small flathead or preceision screwdriver and push from the small side. One end of the tumbler is narrow (small) and the other is wider. You'll be able to read what tumbler you have by the stamping on each one.
Ryan

[911boost]

It gets a little bit more complicated when you have a newer car with electric locks.

I just did mine because the lever on the door handle broke. I ended up just putting the lever on the old handle so I would not have to mess with the tumbers as there were some wires going into them...

Bill