Odd door handleset disassembly problem

[pickyc]

...at this point this problem has gone beyond the realm of a project and into a personal need to figure out how the heck to disassemble this thing =D

I have a regular-looking keyed entry handleset on an interior door. Rather than replace it with a passage lock, I decided to just take the pins out of the cylinder and have a free passage lock. So I took the handle off the door, picked the lock, rotated the cylinder 90 degrees... and looked for the release tab/hole.

Then I looked for the release some more. Then I did it again. There is no hole, no button, no tab, no set screws, no nothing... I have no clue how to disassemble this handle. I even tried turning the cylinder 90 degrees and banging the face of the cylinder with the butt of a screwdriver, locking it and banging the face of the cylinder with the butt of a screwdriver...


...so at this point I've put it back on the door so my wife can use the door, but I still need to take it apart at some point just to prove that I can. =D

Any ideas? I'm puzzled, because like I said, I rekey the occasional lock for customers at work, and every door handleset I've ever seen had either a hole or tab-style button to press to release the cylinder from the handle, or it had set screws.

This is not some fancy schmancy lock either... it looks cheaper than kwikset.


There is one more oddity, which may or may not be relevant... when picking this lock, if I put tension on and set pin #5 first, the lock pops open sometimes before I set any other pins. (Yes, it has 5 pins in there). That seems broken to me... but the last time I picked it I had to set all 5, just like a normal lock.

[datagram]

A picture or the make/model would help

dg

[straightpick]

Sounds like a Weiser or Weslock. Non-standard cylinder removal. Need the model-look on the latch face.

[David_Parker]

agreed. However, sometimes the knob retaining hole can be blocked by the outside rose, which needs to be rotated back towards the lockbody or the inside knob. We really do need more information to further any advice.


-Dave.

[pickyc]

Thanks for the responses

I have no clue who made this- I've never seen one like it before.

I took lots of pictures The reason the rosette looks a little chewed up is because I was prying on it to see if there wasn't a tab hidden somewhere in there. :p

[Manong]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGenT_T0lRc

[pickyc]

I actually have a bunch of those kwikset tools (they come in kwikset rekey kits, and we tend to order the whole kit rather than individual springs and pins)... never knew what they were for.

I guess somehow I've never rekeyed a kwikset before... maybe most people throw them away rather than rekey them, and the new ones can be rekeyed by anyone with a paper clip. :p

At any rate, thanks, mission accomplished.

[Raymond]

From the pictures this looks a lot like a Kwikset or one of the many imported look-a-likes. Remove the center spindle by sliding the spring loaded plate back with a small screw driver, rotate the spindle to the center, and slide up and out. Look into the hole through the remaining locking assembly and look for the end of a flat spring on two sides. The spring has a hook built into it. The springs are attached to the side of the cylinder. Press the springs toward the center at the same time and the cylinder should come out the front. There are several tools for Kwikset that press both springs at the same time but you can use two small (1/8")screwdrivers or two pieces of flat spring steel like street sweeper brushes. Replace the spindle and put it back on the door. The cylinder can be taken apart as you described earlier and will then snap back into place.

Your surprised ease of picking may be because the top pins are too small and are passing under the shear line before being raised. The bottom pins in these locations are probably small 1's or 2's.

[pickyc]

If anyone else has questions on rekeying kwikset, look here.

[pickyc]

Your surprised ease of picking may be because the top pins are too small and are passing under the shear line before being raised. The bottom pins in these locations are probably small 1's or 2's.

The original keying was 65331, but I don't know what order the pins were in (I didn't care at the time, I just dumped them out). I can tell you that from what I remember from picking it, a 3 was pin #1, 1 was pin #2, a 5 or 6 was #3, 3 was #4, and a 5 or 6 was #5. (I'm going from my memory of "tall pin, short pin"

I rekeyed it randomly and picked it for fun, and it behaved like a normal lock both times. (I actually had trouble picking it because I put a tall pin in 1 and a shorter pin in 2, and the pick order had 2 before 1, and I'm bad at that =D). I'm still not sure why it had the "one pin pick" going before. I am an extremely novice picker though.

[Raymond]

The combination 65331 is somewhat of an angled straight line. When the pick went all the way to the back, most of the pins rested on the pick at very close to the shear line. A lucky wobble would complete the picking. This was just a random combination that you accidently discovered to be a quick pick. This is why we never key a lock to 22222 or 12345 as these combinations are too easy to accidently open with anything. Your lack of experience had nothing to do with it. You were picking the lock. So, keep up the good work.