Club 80-90 Forums

I have a spare cab door handle/lock for my van.
I have stripped it down to the component parts, taken out the cylinder locks and removed the 7 brass wafers, whch I have put to one side.(Without realising at the time that they were all slightly different !!!

I tried putting the wafers back into the slots but without a miracle happening this was never going to work, I could be there for days.

My problem now is how to put the correct wafers into the correct slots?

Any suggestions please as to how to do this?
 

There are only 4 variants of the wafers, and many locks only have 2 or 3 flavours, so work out which are the same first
then draw out the key next to the barrel so you can see how the shape of the key relates to each wafer
then starting at the tip try each flavour of wafer and each time insert the key and look to see if the wafer is centred in the barrel, ie not sticking out at all, that's the correct position of the wafer with the key in once you have figured out the first one and the relative shape of the key you should be able to figure out the rest, remembering the two reverse fitting wafers obviously work in reverse pattern, shouldn't take long, even by trial and error. Depending on how worn the key is and the wafers they may not be perfectly flush with the barrel, if you look in the handle you will likely see scratch marks where the uncentred wafers have been dragging round the hole

Aidan,

Many thanks for your response.

I don't seem to be getting anywhere, probably because I don't really understand your instructions.

I have hopefully uploaded a pic - mabe this will be helpful.

looks like you only have 3 variants of the wafers
from the left 1, 2 and 7 are the same, 3 is unique, 4,5 and 6 are the same, so call them A, B and C
If you put the key in the barrel you can see where each wafer interacts with the key, if you can mark the key at each place you can see that it is either a high a low or a in between spot in the profile
so put wafer A the correct way up, ie the tang where the spring fits, in the slot at the bottom of the lock, left in the picture, then insert the key fully allowing the wafer to move in the slot to accomodate the key. Now is that wafer centred in the barrel ? then it is the correct wafer
slot 1=A
if you compare where the key is the same profile as the first position then you can 'guess' where the other 2 A's go and try them in the respective slot and see if they are also centred in the barrel
if 1 does not = A then try B etc...
It's harder for me to explain than it is to do
Make a chart if you like to keep track of what  you are doing
The two slots that face the opposite direction are the ones that can be confusing

at a guess yours is C A B A C A C from the left but I could be wrong
have you got new springs for the rebuild ?

It will be time consuming but you could just put the wafers in and the key, trial and error by swapping the wafers out til the air flush with the barrel when the key is in. Ive redone mine that way, was quite relaxing

Aidan/Stesaw,

Got there eventually, though I have to say it sticks sometimes.
If I wiggle the key out very slightly all is fine?

Thanks for all your efforts.