Abus 83/45 key jammed in lock cylinder after removal

[TheDukeOfNukem]

HI...im new here. Great stuff.

Took apart my Abus 83/45 lock to learn how to pick it...wow all spool pins. Practiced with fewer pins etc. I re pinned it a few times with no problem.

This time i was pulling the plug out with the key in and did not properly rotate it....in fact I aligned the pins and presto...its locked up...key wont come out. The cylinder came out to the third pin..almost. I think the key sliped and now the key is offset. If so then one of the pins is blocking the shear line...how the hell do you fix that?

There are only three pins active..the first three from the key seat. All three are spindle drivers. The third pin is visible at the top but is obstructed by a small recess on the bible....so I cant pick it out. Looking inside the cylinder I can see a spool driver popping up inside the keyway at the tip of the key. I cant get it out because the keyway is stopping me from picking it up out of the bible.

I think the third spindle driver jumped out and into the 4 bible chamber and is now trapped by the keyway and the tip of the key.

I dont know but I want to fix it. HELP.

[zeepia]

Ouch.

I have had the same situation but with another lock which I could remove pins from top... it looks like you can´t disassemble yours any further.

The shear line should be blocked by one of your springs only, spool pin should have gotten to the next hole and stay at the bottom of it. Unless there is lower bitting in the key at that point/ there are now two pins at some hole.

But those tolerances are so tight that even the spring only might be too hard to pull out with force.

I´m too waiting from more experienced what the solution here will be.

[Altashot]

I have had that happen numerous times.
If you can peel the spring cap off the bible, do.
If you cant, you WILL need force to pull the plug out.
it WILL destroy 1 or more springs.
The spring(s) WILL bind everything.
The spring(s) WILL scar the plug and/or housing.

These are your only two options.
Sorry Duke... It sucks.

It still do it too every now and then...


M.

[TheDukeOfNukem]

Thank you fellas for your responses.

It's a classic case of total newbness....LOL

Now I guess it's time for diagnosis101 - how to ruin your ABUS lock if you don't take it apart correctly. This will be my first contribution to this community.

Since I apparently have created a lock state of a "double stacked" key pin and this state is un fixable I will sacrifice my lock and make a few photos and re post here with the how and why. So mabey in the future this might help someone out.

The second pin is double stacked. I am going to use a dremel cut tool to slice the cylinder barrel top so that the key can be lifted out vertically. I see no other way other than pulling the key out and if it is a double stack that will never work. Either way I am going to disable the lock. So I may as well make something educational out of it.

Photos with explanation of the issue coming in a few hours.

[Squelchtone]

Smack the lock against the counter in order to bounce the pins, just as you do, time it right to pull the plug out of the housing.

or everything Altashot said =)
Squelchtone

[Squelchtone]

Smack the lock against the counter in order to bounce the pins, just as you do, time it right to pull the plug out of the housing.

or everything Altashot said =)
Squelchtone

Even better, insert messed up core back into the padlock, and holding the shackle beat the padlock against a hard counter and the second you hit the counter, try to turn the key, then you will be able to remove the plug once holes arent above each other.

I have had to do this before, and it does work.

Squelchtone

[Altashot]

Good one Squelchtone! I hadn't thought of that!

God old bump principle!

M.

[TheDukeOfNukem]

This is the post mortem report on improperly removing a lock cylinder on the ABUS 83/45

I had previously taken the lock apart and placed the #1, #2 and #3 pins only to practice picking spindle driver pins. The #4 and #5 pins were omitted. So the lock had only three pins. I attempted to take the plug out to again change pins and it locked up.

After NOT rotating the cylinder properly while pulling the plug I allowed the pins to drop into the bible in incorrect order which in turn trapped the key. In fact I allowed the plug to align with the bible chambers and as the plug was pulled the driver pins jumped position causing the lock and key to become permanently jammed

Since the lock and key are set for 5 pins and my incident happened with 3 pins I believe that the #5 and #4 key cuts helped/allowed the lock to jam as they passed by the chambers.

In order to understand what went wrong I autopsied my lock.

As the plug was pulled in alignment with the bible chambers the #1 and #2 key pins came out. As this happened the #3 driver pin jumped out forward to the 4th bible chamber. The #3 key pin passed over the #2 and #1 driver pins. As this happened the #3 and #2 driver spindle pins wedged at the shear line jamming the lock leaving the #3 key pin trapped at the edge of the bible and cylinder chamber.

What is really weird is the #3 spindle driver jumped FORWARD and fell into the 4th bible chamber while the #3 key pin slid over the top of #2 and #1 spindle driver pins until they both wedged jamming the lock. Leave it to a newb to find out the hard way LOL

I have photos with commentary.

NEVER pull a plug with out inspecting the alignment of the bible and cylinder. The cylinder must be turned to a state where it blocks the bible chambers. DO NOT ALIGN THE CYLINDER KEY PINS WITH THE BIBLE CHAMBER or your lock will permanently jam.

Any commentary is greatly appreciated.

I am a newb. If this post has misleading/incorrect info PLEASE let me know and I will get moderator to remove it.

[TheDukeOfNukem]

I think I made a mistake in my post. In fact I am pretty sure.

I should change the title to "what I THINK happened to my lock"

I cant change the post now(mabey mod can help and let me correct it). I can change the photos which I will do.

But now I am curious to see if anyone can detect my mistake. Hint = pins

I should have known better....should have just asked the questions.

[Squelchtone]

Awesome write up and photos! One thing though, please note unless it is a regional thing, most of us refer to those pins as spool pins, not spindle pins.

On that note, my father pointed to a craigslist ad last night for some lawn mower parts he was buying and he said the person who wrote the ad must be 85 years old because they used the word "zerks" in the ad, and nobody uses that word anymore, most folks call it a grease fitting these days.

from wikipedia: "The patent for the Zerk fitting was granted to Oscar U. Zerk in January 1929, and the assignee was the Alemite Manufacturing Corporation[1] (thus the eponymous names for the fittings). Today many companies make these grease fittings."

Thanks for the detailed follow up,
Squelchtone

[femurat]

Something similar happened to me while reassembling a DOM I disassembled and cleaned: the small pin that interacts with the ball in the key fell into an empty side-pin hole. I've tried all the suggestions above, but unfortunately nothing worked. I had to drill the side of the lock to remove the stuck pin
You can see it on the table below the lock, I drilled just below it and pulled it out slightly damaged. Now at least I have some spare pins and spring that I can use to rekey differently the other side.

Cheers