Need some door lock-adaptation advice (1 Viewer)

[lelandEOD]

I’m a bit stuck here and could use some advice from more experienced members of the group.

One of my pet peeve’s with older cars is the necessity for multiple keys. I recently purchased a new ignition and door lock set from Toyota. I now have the ignition, front doors, locking fuel cap, and fuel filler door on one master key.

The trick now is to figure out how I can adapt a lock cylinder for the rear hatch to work with the master key.

At first, I thought I could just have a spare fuel door lock cylinder re-keyed to work with the master key. I installed it last night and quickly realized the plan will not work because the key remains ‘captive’ in the unlocked position (you cannot remove the key from the cylinder, except in the ‘locked’ position).

If I stick with this, I will have to leave my keys dangling in the lock cylinder while the hatch is open (If I open the hatch and turn the cylinder to remove the key, I risk forgetting to re-insert the key and unlock it before trying to close the hatch lid). Inadvertently slamming the hatch lid closed with the handle locked will probably break something, right?

Is it possible to modify a lock cylinder to release the key in either the locked or unlocked position?


I was also disappointed in the one cylinder I had a local shop rekey. They pryed off the lock face cap and it looks a little boogered now. I spent way too much time this morning scouring lock supply wholesalers for replacement Toyota cylinder face caps without much luck. None of the local locksmiths even seem to have the crimping tools needed to properly install a new lock face cap and none of them seem to care much for what I’m trying to acomplish.

Thoughts?

 

[thebigredrocker]

@BSLK is a locksmith. He helped me out long ago. Perhaps he’ll see this

 

[mdsims]

Your rig is a 70/71, right? Wasn't the rear hatch already similarily keyed? I have a 71 too. Our trucks had 6 key way options for the blanks.

But, if I recall our conversation at the swap meet three years ago, you wanted to switch to later doors, and maybe you did that already and went to a later column (scratched the dash ignition).

What master key set did you buy?

 

[lelandEOD]

@BSLK is a locksmith. He helped me out long ago. Perhaps he’ll see this

Thanks!

Your rig is a 70/71, right? Wasn't the rear hatch already similarily keyed? I have a 71 too. Our trucks had 6 key way options for the blanks.

But, if I recall our conversation at the swap meet three years ago, you wanted to switch to later doors, and maybe you did that already and went to a later column (scratched the dash ignition).

What master key set did you buy?

My truck is a '73 (mostly) so it has a column mounted ignition switch. I am (now) in the process of upgrading to later style doors so i bought a '78-'83 Toyota lock set on eBay (the ignition lock cylinder with the lock fit my column housing just fine).

The original setup had two keys (one for the ignition and fuel filler door and a second (smaller) key for the front doors and rear hatch lock. Ideally, I'd just have a shop rekey the original rear hatch lock to fit the new ignition key but it took the smaller key (the type that has to be inserted in aa specific orientation, unlike the ignition key which can be inserted either way. I doubt the internals are interchangeable.


Ideas?

 

[mdsims]

Thanks!



My truck is a '73 (mostly) so it has a column mounted ignition switch. I am (now) in the process of upgrading to later style doors so i bought a '78-'83 Toyota lock set on eBay (the ignition lock cylinder with the lock fit my column housing just fine).

The original setup had two keys (one for the ignition and fuel filler door and a second (smaller) key for the front doors and rear hatch lock. Ideally, I'd just have a shop rekey the original rear hatch lock to fit the new ignition key but it took the smaller key (the type that has to be inserted in aa specific orientation, unlike the ignition key which can be inserted either way. I doubt the internals are interchangeable.


Ideas?

Ok, thanks, that makes more sense. The earlier trucks used the same key you have for the hatch, for the ignition and front doors. Ideas? Do the ambulance door locksets (or cores) match the later doors? if so, look for a used one and rekey?

 

[lelandEOD]

Thanks for the reply. I did think about ambulance door lock cores but from what I’ve seen online they are the same as the hatch lock cylinder (designed to take the smaller key). Perhaps it is possible to re-key the internals of a hatch cylinder to work with the ignition key?I need to find an actual locksmith ... not the 19 year olds I keep talking to on the phone.

I was at least able to find a shop in town that stocks a large quantity of lock cylinder faces. He said they should have one that will fit. I’m going to have them repair the lock cylinder that was buggered up.

 

[ducktapeguy]

I doubt you'll have much success trying to modify the rear lock to accept a door key. From memory the key profiles are different, one is a double sided vs single sided, and the keys are pretty different lengths so there's just not enough room to fit the standard ignition key in the hatch lock. What might be easier is to modify the hatch mechanism to accept a door lock cylinder. Don't know what the hatch lock mechanism looks like, but if it's just a bent tab on the end, they sell ones with different offsets to accommodate different cylinder lengths.

 

[lelandEOD]

I doubt you'll have much success trying to modify the rear lock to accept a door key. From memory the key profiles are different, one is a double sided vs single sided, and the keys are pretty different lengths so there's just not enough room to fit the standard ignition key in the hatch lock. What might be easier is to modify the hatch mechanism to accept a door lock cylinder. Don't know what the hatch lock mechanism looks like, but if it's just a bent tab on the end, they sell ones with different offsets to accommodate different cylinder lengths.

I think you’re exactly right. The original hatch lock cylinder is too small for the double-sided key.

I also thought about using a late-style front door lock cylinder but when I sat and played with it I realized it would not work. Those cylinders are designed to tug the lock/unlock mechanism either direction and then return to center. That won’t work on the rear hatch. What I need is a lock cylinder that will fit in the space provided, accept a double-sided key, rotate 90°, and let the key be inserted and removed from either position.

This may require a prolonged trip to Pick-N-Pull.

 

[lelandEOD]

Ok, tonight was so full of win I had to share.



After a week of fails with local locksmiths (smashed face caps, mis-reassembled gas cap, jammed cylinders, oh my) I found the brighter side of things.

First, I inadvertently made the hatch lock mechanism far too complicated. The handle doesn't move when the hatch is closed as the spring loaded latches "float" on the linkage. This means closing the hatch with the handle locked does not cause catastrophic failure or breakage; I'll just end up with a hatch that is always locked unless the keys are in the cylinder or it is open. Thus, I am content with having to unlock the hatch every time I want to get into it for the benefit of having only one key on this truck.


Now I have the ignition, front doors, fuel door, and rear hatch on one double sided key.


















...but wait, there's more!


The last cylinder on this truck that I really wanted matched to the ignition key was the lock on the Tuffy console. Since I was not too enthused about taking it back to a local locksmith/recovering-tweeker job-placement program participator, I decided to see about rekeying the cylinder myself. I figured if I completely botched it, I'd still have the push button functionality (and I've long ago lost the original Tuffy key).

So, I popped the lock off the lid and set to work. (Note): I didn't take photos of the whole project simply because I didn't think there was a real chance of success until I started to put it back together.

Essentially, I disassembled the cylinder by removing the screw that secured the locking arm:

Then I removed the inner cylinder from the housing by removing this tiny C-clip (not fun).

Next I removed the face cap, dust cover, and spring. I noticed while test fitting the ignition key in the Tuffy cylinder that it wasn't inserting fully into the lock body. Once I had the face cap and dust cover off, I could see why. The opening in the cast aluminum body was just a little too small. ... about 10 minutes with a jewelers file (carefully enlarging the hole) fixed that problem.

Once the key would fully insert in the cylinder, I set about filing down the tumblers to sit flush with the cylinder body (with the key fully inserted). I'm certain trained locksmiths are face-palming at my technique as I'm sure you are supposed to choose appropriate tumblers from a selection to match the key. There I was, bastard file in hand; wild-eyed and in the midst of an alcohol-induced fit of levity. A couple minutes rounding the tumblers down, mixed with fits of sporadic cackling, and I had it all back together.

You can sort of see the tumblers in action in these photos:

Zang.