5200 not locking after inspection

[WolfSpring]

I took apart a 5200 to see what pins are in there, I've done with with a bunch of these and I'd consider myself pretty good at it. So there was three spools and two serated drivers and all five key pins were serated. I put them back together like I always did and I noticed that when I tried to pick it this time I only needed to hit one pin and it opened, thats wierd, I thought maybe I put the plug in backwards, which has never mattered before, but ya never know, so I went in and flipped it, and before re assembling the lock I checked to see if it was the same deal, now it won't lock at all, so I reversed it again, and the same thing, only the middle stack seems to be locking. I flipped it around so the bible and the lower keyway lined up and all the driver pins came up and i could push them down with normal resistance. as I looked at the bottom it did look like they slightly didn't line up so I took the plug out, cleaned it up best I could, looked for any burs or issues and put it back together with no luck. Just shy of filing the cylindar I'm wondering what could have caused this issue. The lock is fairly new I got it brand new with key and have picked it maybe 50 times, I've got others I've found in the dirt cut I've picked a lot more, 5200's hold up pretty good.

I'm just wondering has anyone else come accross this issue, oh and I did check to see that the key pins were moving like they should. Do I have a defective lock, or maybe I broke something?

The only other thing I can think is I did serated 3 spool serrated, but I don't see why that would cause this, I'll re-arrange and see if that helps.

[Raymond]

Try stretching the springs out a little so they put pressure on the pins again. I have noticed that most 5200s have springs so compressed that the medium length bottom pins are not under any pressure. After a lot of picking you might have compressed the springs even more so the lock almost picks it's self.
Stretch the springs, lube with graphite, and reassemble. There just isn't anything else that can actually break on this lock without being really obvious.
Good luck and congratulations on the picking. After all my years of experience I still cannot reliably pick a 5200.

[WolfSpring]

I'll try that, though it was a newer lock, I've noticed newer means cheaper wtih 5200s lately. It's all I have in abundance I can pick one that I've picked once usually in under two minutes, I got a few that I can pick in under a minute. I was having "one of those nights the other night" and my buddy handed me one to pick off of a box I'd never touched before and I took me about 5 minutes. But then again some nights I can't even pick my warm up lock. They are finiky and some require what I call backing up, kinda like a false set, but more you can set one pin before another, but it moves to far and you have to back up just a little to get the behind the one you just got. And the more spools the easier for me to pick, I love false sets, so easy to work with on these locks. I wish I could move on to something more advanced, but time vs money vs location right now it isn't happening. Most of my 5200s are cut locks from containers I find on the ground and some I get brand new out the box. I'm getting some blanks, a magnifiying headset, a file and a key holder I want to learn to impression keys. And with all the locks out here I can save my unit a little money i I learn how to make a key for a lock previously lost. That or at least pick them and re pin them to a key I've already cut. Last year in Kuwait I came home with about 30 of them, all cut.