Ace Resettable Padlock

[mattman]

I have an Ace resettable Padlock that I don't know the combination for. It's been sitting around for awhile. Well, I have read that if you drill holes by the numbers, you can see the cams move when you move the numbers of the combination. Then all a person has to do is to line-up the flat spots on the cams, and then add 7 to the numbers that appear on the combination, and that is the actual combination of the lock.

Well, I drilled the holes by the numbers, and I can see the cams move when I turn the numbers around. The problem is that I can't see any flat spots on the cams to line-up. All of the cams appear to be completely round no matter how slowly I turn them. I thought that maybe this lock is designed differently than the locks that the directions I read were meant for.

Does anyone have any ideas of how I can recover the combination? It's an Ace lock, and the only other marking is on the bottom, which says: US PAT NO 6,176,10981. Here is a picture of it:



Thanks for any help that anyone could give me!

Matt

[mh]

Currently you look at the outside of a tube around the shackle; you want to look into the space between this tube and the wheel.
Look between the wheels and the housing. Usually no need to drill holes.

Cheers,
mh

[freakparade3]

You can pull the wheels side to side slightly. Look at the spaces with a flashlight and find the flat spots. Any lock I have decoded I added 5 to the number, not 7. Some locks may be different however.

[mattman]

You can pull the wheels side to side slightly. Look at the spaces with a flashlight and find the flat spots.

There's no room to move the wheels side to side. I first tried to put a .007" shim between the wheels and the case in order to "feel" the flat spots on the cams, but the shim wouldn't even fit. The tolerance between the wheels and case is too close. That's why I decided to drill holes so I could see the flat spots, but I don't see any.

Matt

[Trip Doctor]

In my experience it might not always be a flat spot. The wheels might be false gated all over exept the real gate, which is noticably bigger than the false gates.

[Raymond]

1. By referring to this padlock as an ACE Rekeyable, most of us would have thought it was a seven pin tubular lock. ACE does make resetable locks. More would have understood if you had referred to it as an "ACE Hardware four wheel lock. This is very similar to asking where to find an Ilco key when you really wanted a blank for Master(or anything) padlock. Try to give a better description in order to help us help you.

2. The shackle probably has little spurs sticking out of it at the bottom of each wheel. The wheel has another round cylinder with a slot cut out that allows the spur to move upward. The round cylinder can be slid out of the wheel when changing the combo and put back in on the new combo number.

3. Open by pulling steadily outward while rotating the wheels. One wheel will be tighter than the others and you will feel when it feels free at the combo number. It is set. Then go to the next wheel and do the same.

[mattman]

1. By referring to this padlock as an ACE Rekeyable, most of us would have thought it was a seven pin tubular lock. ACE does make resetable locks.

I don't remember referring to this lock as being "rekeyable." I thought I called it "resettable." But sorry about any misunderstandings.

3. Open by pulling steadily outward while rotating the wheels. One wheel will be tighter than the others and you will feel when it feels free at the combo number. It is set. Then go to the next wheel and do the same.

I've been trying this with no luck. A couple of the wheels (the last two) seem to set, the the other two don't. I'll keep working on it. Thanks for the info.

Matt