House back door stuck in locked position

[yellowroseofCAN]

Hi everyone,

Long story short....

Our back door keyed lock is stuck in the locked position even though the knob was set to unlock. The door fits in the frame normally - the problem is definitely with the lock. We've tried everything to get it to open, most attempts being from inside the house where I think it will be easier. Door swings inside and the knob is the kind you can lock from the inside by a turning lock, not the pushing kind. Keyed entry from the outside. We have tried:

1) Getting a hanger around the latch and pulling the hanger in towards us. Hanger won't go through.
2) Doing the same thing with ribbon - ribbon WILL go through, but it won't press the latch in enough to open the door.
3) Credit card through the outside.
4) Tried retracting the latch with a flat head screwdriver - we can only get the small part of the latch retracted.
5) Screwdriver on different parts of the inside of the lock, but this might be the part that's damaged since it should be in the unlocked position already and I can't see anything to retract. See pics:

http://imgur.com/RK1qzOs
http://imgur.com/jSBbtFy
http://imgur.com/DYWLjfC

6) Removing door hinge pins - the middle hinge pin won't budge at all when we try to punch it up from beneath it. Hinges are also heavily painted.

Our only other idea is to take a hacksaw to the latch as a last resort. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

[billdeserthills]

Well well, this is one of my favorite lockouts. I usually find the deadlatch has broken, due to having been installed poorly. I usually take a 2 1/8 hole saw and chuck it up in my drill. Now put it into the lock mounting hole and cut the back half of the latch off. You'll want to cut enough off the back of the latch to allow the tongue to push through from the front, which it will do, as soon as the rear portion of the deadlatch is destroyed.
I usually charge $135 to put it all back together with a passage latch to keep this from happening again.

Ain't Kwikset great?

[Squelchtone]

bill, could the OP insert something where the D shaped stem would normally go through and torque that to retract the latch?

OP, can you use a flat blade screwdriver or something to press the part the green arrow is pointing to in the direction of the red arrow?

[yellowroseofCAN]

Squelchtone,

Tried that, but definitely willing to try it again.

[Squelchtone]

Squelchtone,

Tried that, but definitely willing to try it again.

Ok, try this as well: [EDIT: Skip this, see my next reply instead]

http://i.imgur.com/5ZAqgZQ.png

or do the drilling idea bill suggested if you have those tools handy.

[Squelchtone]

I think I found a video with a solution to your exact problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsmngd-FanE&t=4m44s






-Squelchtone

[yellowroseofCAN]

Cool, my husband is picking up a better flat head screwdriver and we'll try some of these things out tonight. Will update!

[Squelchtone]

Cool, my husband is picking up a better flat head screwdriver and we'll try some of these things out tonight. Will update!

watch that video I linked above, it's probably much better than that diagram I made before I found it.

[yellowroseofCAN]

Update: No luck. The video showed some interesting things, but the problem is the inside is retracted already and stuck in that position. I found the little hole that the video talks about at the end, but nothing happens. We actually took apart another lock that is the same model, and we definitely think something is jammed inside to keep the inside pieces from moving properly. Now we're revisiting the stuck hinge pins. Sigh.

ETA we don't have a working drill right now to go with Bill's suggestion.

[yellowroseofCAN]

Update 2:

The door is open! We made more progress with the hinge pins, but ultimately it still didn't work out, so we ended up getting an open mini hacksaw. No joke. Took 30 minutes to saw through, and my husband and I did it in shifts, so it wasn't that hard. The pieces all came out cleanly and now all we need to do is put in a new lock.

[billdeserthills]

You need to open up the rear of the latch. You can reach it from inside the larger hole. My Dad used to just take a screwdriver and a pliers and start prying everything you can off the latch and pull it through the hole. eventually the end cap on the latch will pull free and everything holding the door shut will pull out the back, or through the big hole.

[billdeserthills]

Update 2:

The door is open! We made more progress with the hinge pins, but ultimately it still didn't work out, so we ended up getting an open mini hacksaw. No joke. Took 30 minutes to saw through, and my husband and I did it in shifts, so it wasn't that hard. The pieces all came out cleanly and now all we need to do is put in a new lock.

So the $135 I charge might be too little eh?

[Squelchtone]

hey congrats, nice team work! what a project, eh? It's funny that the lock is more secure after it failed, bet the factory didn't think of that one..


Thank you for the follow up!
Squelchtone