Please help me sleep safely in my house tonight!

[nimchimpsky]

Hi, I really hope someone can help; my back door lock is in pieces!
It is an ERA rim lock (see photo). Earlier on, the black button that holds the lock open so that it doesn’t automatically lock if the door swings shut, fell off. I noticed that it wouldn’t go back on because the silver thingy (sorry- I’m going to be using technical terms like that a lot) that it attaches to had slipped inside the mechanism. So I took the lock off and removed the back plate so that I could straighten it up again. Normally when I take things apart, I take a photo first so that I can remember where everything went, but this time as soon as I took the plate off, one bit slipped out of place, and when I tried to put it back, a spring popped out, and before I knew it, all the parts had fallen out and I have no idea how to put them back!
Can anyone please walk me through how to put it back together? For ease of understanding, I’m going to name the parts as follows (working from left to right in the photo):
Thingy 1: the large spiral spring
Thingy 2: the small spiral spring
Thingy 3: the large spring with legs
Thingy 4: the little washer
Thingy 5: the roughly L-shaped lump of metal with a hole at one end and a pin at the other
So in theory there should be no more than 5 steps to this and I hope I will be able to lock my back door before I go to bed tonight!
Thankyou thankyou thankyou in advance!

[femurat]

How about looking for a era lock picture on Google? I guess it's quite easy to find one like yours and deduce how to put it back together.

Good luck and keep us updated

[nimchimpsky]

Thanks femurat, that seemed like quite a good idea but I haven't been able to find anything! A few youtube videos on how to fit them, and how to pick them, but neither involves taking the back off so there's no pictures of the insides. Seems crazy to have to buy a new one when all the parts are there!

[femurat]

Maybe some of our friends from UK will chime in and give you a few hints. I guess that's quite a common lock up there.

Cheers

[nimchimpsky]

I've also emailed ERA, turns out they are only about an hour away from me. I'm wondering whether I could take it up there and ask them to put it back together!!

[nimchimpsky]

Problem solved: took it to a lock shop, they opened up a similar one and figured it all out. Apparently one of the springs is only held in place by the back plate, so that's why it all fell apart when I took the back plate off! Worth knowing

[inJapan]

Im not too sure if this is helpful. But im your google search type in the lock name and then the word gutted.
Its an easy way to find opened locks. but you probably already know that. maybe its helpful to someone.
anyway, glad you got it fixed.
P.S, if you weren't abke to find a picture of it opened online, why dont you do the community a favor and post a pic or two of it opened and show us all where all those thingys go.

[nimchimpsky]

I'm not sure I would dare to risk it! The guy said the back plate was the only thing holding it all in, and if I take it off again it could all fall out again. That's probably why there'sno pics of them open on the web. Can you imagine going back in there a second time having just made exactly the same mistake?? if I find anything though I'll post it