C2 Door Lock Cylinder

[Dave K.]

My 66 passenger side door lock cylinder won't turn with the key in. The passenger side is fine. I tried graphite and this didn't work. The cylinder is out of the car. Is there a way to disassemble the cylinder and complete a repair? I have the fork like lock clip off now but can't seem to see how the rest comes apart.

Regards,
Dave Kitch

[David D.]

Re: C2 Door Lock Cylinder

Dave, The chrome cover needs to be removed, to remove the lock tumbler. The original covers are crimped completely around the lip at the end of the lock cylinder housing. A replacement cover uses 4 tabs and can be carefully removed by bending each one up slightly. 99 percent of the time, the original cover is destroyed removing it, so a replacement cover is needed. Once the cover is removed, the tumbler usually falls out, along with the shutter and the 2 little springs. If not corroded very badly, you can probably free it up. If not, a new one is the best way to go. FWIW. Dave

[Gary S.]

Re: C2 Door Lock Cylinder

Dave, any competent locksmith (a real one - not one who works out of a hardware store) can set your tumbler for you. I had a similar situation with my 66 and the local locksmith charged a nominal fee of maybe $25?? to reset it. All it takes is one of the tumblers to be out of position. Personally, I wouldn't mess with it. Imho.
Gary

[Dick W.]

Re: C2 Door Lock Cylinder

I belive that if I had the lock out, before I did anything, I would soak it in a good penetrating fluid such as WD 40, CRC 556 etc. Give it a 24 hour and then try to operated it with the key. Sometimes that is all it takes.

[Chuck G.]

Re: C2 Door Lock Cylinder

As others have said, don't "mess" with it. You'll have little springs, shutters, lock pins etc. flying everywhere. E Mail me offline, and I'll put you in touch with a real Corvette locksmith here in Maryland. He's the guy that does all the locks for Paragon, CCentral, etc. Soak it first, and see if you can get it working. Chuck

[Jack H.]

Note the side-effect....

of the GM convention for orienting locks such that keys enter teeth down, is for stray dirt to follow gravity and accumulate in the lock cylinder's tumbler/spring section! Since savvy judges look closely at the bezels of exterior locks (originals were crimped 360-degrees while service replacements had four discrete crimp tabs), I'd consider the advice of others here....

Try soaking the lock in solvent overnight. Follow up with a thorough blast of compressed air to drive out residual 'gunk'.

Next, with the lock out of the car, you ought to be able to read the original key code stamped on the housing. IF the lock is original (check for an untouched 360-degree bezel crimp that's 'virgin'), consider having a fresh key cut from the code.... Over the years, keys wear and duplicate keys cut from worn keys tend to become progressively 'off-nominal'. A fresh original key should help with fit precision to the lock tumblers.

[Wayne K.]

Re: C2 Door Lock Cylinder

Dave,

Are you sure you have a matching door ? Bought a car once that someone didn't bother to change the lock after the door was replaced so I took it to a locksmithn and had the tumbler changed to match the key that worked for the rest of the car.

Wayne