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Door lock mechanism is working fine as fully overhaul. When door handle is out door can be opened from outside and inside, as well per the door top button. I did all the adjustments for smooth operations. All good.

It is the tumbler for the driver door and trunk. They both never worked.
I will see what I can do, def will bring it to the US on next tip.

Matthias
Two of the trunk locks that have been sent to me for repair actually had nothing mechanically wrong with the locks. Nothing.

After 40 years of exposure to exhaust particles and road dust the trunk lock cylinder was essentially glued to its housing.

Soaking the assembly in lacquer thinner, several hours in an ultrasonic cleaner, careful removal of the pin retaining the lock cylinder in the housing and judicial use of force finally allowed the cylinder to be freed from the housing. After thoroughly cleaning all surfaces and reassembly, the lock worked perfectly fine.

As there is no access to the rear of the lock cylinder the only way to remove one that is stuck is to rely on Newtons law that says an object in motion tends to remain in motion.

I found a 12 point, 18 mm socket was the right size to capture the housing but allow the lock cylinder to fit within the 12 points. With the socket and trunk lock cupped in my hand, repeated hard smashing of everything into my workbench eventually saw the lock cylinder slowly emerging from the housing.

Larry

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And one more..
the tumbler in the ignition lock is also stuck!!!

Key goes in/out, engine can be started, run and acc are ok. So key turns ..no issue ..
BUT the LOCKING i.e the tumbler comming out all the way DOES NOT WORK. It did work befor, well AFTER I did lubricated it with WD40 it got stuck. --I know "never touch a running system" Cool -

I saw on the tech pages helping info..

Any other suggestions ? ..lube lube .. Smiler

Danke
Matthias
I do not recommend WD-40 for use in a lock. It is a petroleum product, does not fully evaporate and remains sticky, thus only serving to collect dust and dirt.

Graphite powder is readily available to lubricate a lock. There are some liquid lock lubricants specifically designed for locks, such as Houdini, which I purchase from online sellers. Those are the only products I suggest to use.

The mechanism that helps the lock cylinder pop back out is buried very deep in the ignition housing and has no clear path for the delivery of lubricant. It is located at a dead-end hole that does a great job of collecting the dirt and grime over the years.

The mechanism is a spring loaded ball bearing and a chisel pointed piece that is pushed between the ball bearing and a fixed point. When the key is removed the spring loaded ball bearing is supposed to help push the chisel point, which is connected to the lock cylinder, out.

Also located behind the lock cylinder is another spring loaded ball bearing that guides the lock cylinder in its rotational movement.

With both of them covered in 40 years of dirt and grime, the lock cylinder no longer wants to pop back out.

The only way to seriously clean them is to remove the lock cylinder from the housing, which I can help guide you to do. But the first step would be removing the lock assembly from the steering column.

At this point that is what I suggest. Once the lock housing is removed you should however soak it in lacquer thinner overnight and then use compressed air to try and blow out the loosened dirt. But because everything is buried inside the assembly most of the dirt will not escape but it may be removed from the ball bearings.

If you study the photograph you will see the ball bearing and the chisel pointed piece that pushes against it.

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Tx Larry..
will study the detail to understand the the ignition lock cylinder. For now I will run the car as ALL NEWLY Built so I am desperate to see it move, in particular as the Summer is currently nice in Germany. Will see how to protect it against theft for now.. Big Grin

And YES I used for "lubrication" graphite powder but correct WDW 40 is not good for cleaning due to residuals glueing, will use lacquer thinner as you mentioned when out.

Also as the plastic door handles are broken I will now remove the handles and locks, clean the locks as you explained, lub. with graphite and replace the plastic handle shell by Aluminum shells which I have already..(expensive but very nice!!).

Will come back on guidance for the ignition tumbler.
..and the trunk lock is there as well..

Danke

Matthias
I've meant to thanks Larry for some time for preparing a working set of locks for my '72, which hasn't had a good, correct set since 1985. Hooray, finally!

Both my door locks were lost c. 1985 during a repaint and over the years the trunk lock apparently got REALLY stuck (as described above), to a point where I actually came to believe that I must have lost and replaced all 3 locks, not just the 2 door units.

Anyway....I luckily retained the original keys, and now all locks (part of #3507s cool identity, at least in my mind) work like they did in 1972. So bravo & thanks to Larry for this service to the DeT community!

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