Door lock cylinder

dwaynec

dwaynec

Senior Member
It was a fantastic day here in the slowly thawing midwest so I decided to do some work on the '37. To make a long story short, when I closed the front passenger door, I noticed the door lock cylinder sticking out about a half inch. I tried to gently push it back in, but apparently it had slid out enough that the square "rod" had slid out of the piece that it sticks into. So, now I guess I am going to have to pull the door panel to get it back in.

It has been a lot of years since I have tried anything like this and I really don't want to mess things up. What all in the way of tools do I need to get the door panel off. can I just use like a putty knife between the door and the panel to gently get the clips out? What do I have to do to get the door handle and the window crank off? Can I just push on the door panel to get at whatever is holding the handle and crank on? What holds the crank and handle to their respective shafts? What is supposed to hold that lock cylinder in the door? I can't is it just one of those spring type washers with the teeth that you push the cylinder through?

Any and all help appreciated.
 

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Dwayne
On the edge of the door , even with the lock cylinder, behind the weather strip, should be a hole through which you can insert an allen wrench to loosen a set screw which holds the key cylinder in place. More complicated re installing the same.

Bruce

Works good
Lasts long time
 
There is no weather strip on the doors on my car! It made it pretty easy to look through the hole. Unfortunately there is no sign of a set screw. I guess it must have fallen out and is probably laying in the bottom of the door.

Back to pulling the panel I guess.
 
When you get to the part about putting the lock back in, take a wire, dental pick or something similar and run it through the door. You will notice a slight indention at the end of the shaft on the lock. Put the wire, or whatever, through the door from the inside and stick the wire into the slight indention, and guide it through the door. The shaft is sort of hinged and hangs somewhat loose. (as are many of our shafts nowadays) and you cannot just slip it in.
 
I have heard of putting soft candle wax around where the square rod enters the back of the lock cylinder. Let that harden so that it holds the square rod straight out. Very carefully insert the cylinder so that rod goes into the internal square hole as the cylinder goes into place. Tighten set screw that keeps cylinder in door. The wax will just fall off inside the door. No need to go to all that work of removing inside panel.

Edit: Just reread this thread and see that you do not have the set screw that holds the lock cylinder in place. I doubt it's inside the bottom of the door and I would not go to the trouble required to find out. If the internal threads in the door for the set screw are still good, find another set screw.
 
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When mine came out the same way I had to tap the set screw hole to a slightly larger size as it was striped when trying a new standard size set screw that came with the ropo door cylinder from Mac's, purchased a new oversized set screw from McMaster-Carr, used masking tape to hold the lock rod centered and reinstalled and put in the new set screw, all without taking the door apart. Zeke

Just looked the set screws I used were 10-32 X 5/8 allen, I ran a 10-32 tap in lock tube with cylinder out to go deep, my doors were 40 doors with the 37 hardware welded in the 40 doors for the window tracks.
 
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One method is to use a stiff/fine( the finer and stiffer the better) wire and push it through the upholstery. The lock mechanism has a hole through the door for access. Center the wire in the little divot on the end of the lock cylinder shaft and push the lock in while backing the wire out. When you remove the wire the hole in the upholstery will close up & disappear.
 
Thanks for all the help!! Unfortunately I got caught up in the "honey do" projects and was unable to work on the car.

Hopefully today will be more successful.
 
Finally able to get back out and work on the '37. I looked through the set screw hole in the door to see what I would need to do and it looks like I may need to do "a little" work. There is nothing in the door for the set screw to thread into. It looks like a piece must have broken off. I assume that what is missing is part of the plate that holds the lock cylinder housing. Where would I get something like that? I tried getting on the bob drake site, but his server is having a problem right now.
 
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