W114 passenger door lock

[tc20]

Hi guys, heres one for the weekend-
its one of the jobs ive been meaning to get round to, but never bothered..
The passenger door lock will not open using the key. It opens fine from
inside. the key will not budge left or right in the lock. in apperance it seems
identical to the drivers door. the (excuse the description) circular piece
with the notch has the notch facing inwards, exactly as the drivers side.
any ideas?
i have lubed the lock and the mechanism.

By the way i did notice that the rear doors have childproof lock switches
on them - impressive for a 30-odd year old motor..

have a good weekend
Tony

[Educaid]

I just purchased a door lock from the dealer. It was $85. There is a thread regarding replacement.

[mzsmbs]

sounds like you need to take it out and see what the deal with it is. did it ever work? sounds like it's upside down.

[250 Coupe]

Could be a number of things.

It's a wafer lock, it uses thin wafers that line up with the key cuts to let it turn. The part with the slot is the plug, what it fits into is the cylinder. The ignition uses all of the cuts on the key, the doors and glove box use less.

Someone may have jammed a wafer enough to pass the key but not enough to "meet the shear line" which will let the plug turn.

It may not be original to the car.

There is an adjustment on the back of the plug that moves the cam to the cars centerline or away, if not right, it won't unlock the car.

It could be worn out and a PO might have changed it out from the drivers side to save money.

If you are good with fiddly bits, you can take it apart. But beware, many small parts live inside! Easy way out is to pull the entire door handle assembly and take it to a locksmith. He will rekey it to fit your key.

Michael

[anilv]

Try this...

Insert key.. turn it as you pull it out slowly....

If this fails you need to pull the thing .. quite easily done..the hardest part is removing the door card. Once you've done that, theres one philips screw behind the door rubber (remove this) and another holding the front part of the lock (only loosen this)... These two screws are not the same! The one holding the forward part has threads only halfway. Now slide the lock forwards and jiggle it a bit and it will come off.

Now that its off...

See the fork thing on the back.. remember how it goes back on ..one of the forks has a chamfer. In the middle of the fork is a little screw.. screwing it clockwise (tighten) will bring the fork out and vice versa. Before you screw it out make a mark on the fork piece, this piece is made to be adjustable so you can fine-tune the 'space' from when you begin to press the button to when it hits the door-mechanism inside.

Once you've removed the fork thing you will see a circlip holding a pot-metal washer with a tongue.. this tongue holds a little spring which returns the key to the upright position...most of the time this spring is broken so you will need to move the key back to the upright position manually...I have had to buy a complete used lock unit just to get the spring (get the passengers side one if you have to--less usage).

Now that you've removed the circlip..pot-metal washer and spring (or pieces of) you should be able to remove the barrel by pushing it back/outwards... little taps... Big whacks never solve anything. You might need to soak it in something (petrol is what I use..not recommended I know).

Once it starts to come out shove the key in it and withdraw it fully.. the reason you need to put the key in is this is what holds the little key wards in place (the wafers). You should now have the barrel in hand.

Soak the thing some more... Now as you withdraw the key,the little plates will be freed up one by one from alternate sides. Do this on a clean surface and place them in order. You will find there are little springs which live in little holes in the barrel... remove these also.

Is the little trap door in the keyhole working? If not and you have a donor lock you can just use the other barrel (make sure the key has the same profile and will fit the barrel).

Get every thing clean and oiled lightly and then re-assemble ...the idea is not to have any plates sticking once the key is in. You can try to move the plates around or if you have a spare you can mix and match. If that doesn't solve things you have to file down the plates which stick up. Once everything works well...dissassemble..clean and lubricate with graphite powder.

Before you put it back in the button... Take a close look at the inside part of the button... there is a spring there which can rust.. to remove it you have to remove a circlip (older cars) or just push the retaining ring in and give it a quarter turn (newer cars).. spring and button will pop right out. Lubricate with grease an re-install.

Get everything back together and re-install. If there is some free play in the button you can adjust the fork thingy out..there should be a bit of play.

Have fun..

Anil

[250 Coupe]

Anil has it right.

If it is from another car, you will see that some of the wafers are proud of the plug with the key in. You can try switching the wafers around or you can file the high ones down. If you file you will compromise the security of the lock but not by much.

Michael

[tc20]

thanks for all your help and suggestions guys.
Anilv, looks like you hit the nail on the head, i'll take my
time and go thru it s l o w l y.

once again im indebted to the level of expertise available here.

Many thanks,
tony