At 08:31 PM 7/14/2005, you wrote:
I remember reading a post about someone who had a stuck trunk handle and used
heat to unstick it.
Yup,
I bought a trunk handle with lock, but no key from a guy on eBay. When I
visited a city with a locksmith I took the handle with me. Turned out to be
a biker type guy, but he did have a computerized database from which he
could set up his machine to cut a key from the key code on the lock. (On my
lock the number is stamped on the square shaft that runs from the lock to
the lever mechanism. You may have to clean up the shaft to see the
numbers.) When the key was cut he tried it and promptly pronounced the lock
was frozen - that will be $15. I had no idea whether the lock was frozen or
if he was just blowing smoke up my bloomers. He did spray a magic potion in
the lock for me. I took it home and continued spraying WD40 in the lock and
tapping it with a very small ball peen hammer on the shaft. I also kept
wiggling the key in the lock, but was always careful not to overdue it. For
heat, I just placed the lock in the sun in a place that got real warm. I
also put the lock in the freezer, then tap, tap, tap, wiggle, wiggle,
wiggle, then back in the sun.
You know what? That biker guy was right!! The lock was frozen. I think the
first place that was frozen was the tumbler cylinder at the point furthest
away from the lock "face" (where the key goes in). The main body of the
lock has a great deal of clearance, but at the end of the lock a small
portion is tighter. The key wiggled more when that broke loose. Next the
part that was tough was the slider that you can see by looking at the back
side of the lock. I began trying to move that back and fourth using bent
nails or whatever else I could fashion to let me tap the slider. WD40, tap,
wiggle, sun, freezer, repeat. It finally let loose. You just need to be
patient. The kind of "rust" you have here is the corrosion between white
metal and steel. Maybe someone on the list knows of a good potion to cut
that stuff. It may have been easier if I had the same stuff the biker
locksmith had, but if it can't be fixed with WD40, it's not worth fixing -
right? <G>.
I would say that most of my effort was in trying to get the lock slider to
move after the cylinder freed up. You can't get a good wack at it - and you
shouldn't wack it hard. The WD40 washes out little bits of corrosioneach
time you repeat a cycle of taps, heating and cooling.
The white metal won't take much heat so leave the "blue wrench" alone and
don't use the big hammer.
I wish I could send you some pix's, but everything is packed in prep for an
upcoming move. I'll look and see if I have any in my archive.
Good luck - be patient, trust your biker locksmith!
Tim Collins
Dollar Bay, MI
1966 AH Sprite
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