Hi,
no need to start another topic, I have merged the new one into your first post.
To determine 3 or 4 wheel you have to dial the wheels and listen for the faint sounds of metal hitting metal (take 2 butter knives out of the kitchen drawer and while holding one in your left hand, tap it with the butter knife in your right hand, that's the metal tapping sound you'll want to listen for as the wheels in the safe touch each other when rotating around) the wheels have a little protrusion called a pin on them and as you rotate the wheels around, eventually their pin will hit the next wheel and engage the next wheel and now both wheels are turning, then that 2nd wheel's pin will eventually rotate around and grab the 3rd wheel, and if there's a 4th wheel to be picked up, the 3rd wheel's pin will do that job. So you're listening for the moment each wheel's pin hits against the next wheel. you'll either hear 3 or 4 of these sounds, sometimes you have to turn the dial clockwise a bunch of times, sometimes counter clockwise.
For the very important dialing order (left right left right and how many left rights, I will defer to a link I found posted by a guy named "Andy" who is very good with these things:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Locksmithing ... afe-23.htmThe only thing I don't agree with is his count of 5,3,2,1
So try:
Left 4 times to first number (this means that: If the first number of the combination is 65, you dial Left [counter clockwise] passing by 65 three times, and stop on 65 the 4th time)
Right 3 times to second number
Left 2 times to third number
Right 1 time until the dial stops
Turn handle to open door
As far as test combinations, I don't think they're a state secret in this day and age, so I'll post them here:
40-60-35
50-86-32
56-13-36
10-60-35
Now, this doesn't mean the owners didn't change the factory combination to their own over the last 100 years, in fact they probably did. It's anyone's guess what numbers they thought of. Birthdays, famous years, lucky numbers, who knows. Other common test numbers are 25-50-25, 50-0-50, 50-25-50, 25-50-75, 10-20-30, 20-40-60, just think in terms of such patterns, it only take a few minutes to try them all and you may just get lucky.
good luck,
Squelchtone
[EDIT: From further research, I believe your safe has a Cary C-5 direct drive straight-tailpiece lock. After you dial the 3 digit combination, turn the dial to 40 and then turn the handle. Unlike the instructions up above, the last turn of the dial will not stop the dial from turning, you have to dial to 40, then turn handle.
If you want to do a fun test, dial the wheels a bunch of times to the left and stop on 76, now try to throw the handle to the Left and notice how much it moves.. 1/16 ich? 1/8 inch? maybe even a 1/4 inch? Now put the handle back to 6 oclock, and dial the dial Right to 40, and try the handle again and see if it moves more or less than when the dial was on 76. Let me know what you find]
