Door lock problems

[p-thomas]

It is getting to the point where i am scared to lock my car doors. I have never been able to unlock the passenger side door with the key and it has gotten increasingly difficult to lock/unlock the drivers door too.

New lock cylinders are available for $89 a piece and the ignition works fine. I wouldnt care if i had 2 keys for the car. Is that the best route?

Could it be that the key is just worn out and i new one could be cut for the locks?

Paul

[DaveE]

If you buy new door locks a good locksmith could match them to your ignition key.

[greens]

Unless your car has a different handle on it, the key lock may just be frozen. These are pretty simple once you take them apart. I assume you've already used graphite and WD40 into the lock from the outside so you need to go inside. To get to the part you need to take off your passenger outside side handle. Some interior door panel disassembly may be needed. The handle is held on by 2 small nuts. Once it is out, it disassembles by removing the screw which holds your lock arm, return spring and lock barrel in the handle. The lock barrel will come out and on a 70 you should see 6(?) steel sleeves which determine the actual key code once it is out. But carefully remove the barrel from the handle; when you take it out the sleeves are sprung and may want to pop out. I found that over the years mine got gummed up as the old grease got dirt in it. Careful clearning restored my lock to working condition.

[kenikh]

Here's what apparently happened to my car. The PO told me that the ignition key wore over time to the point that various locks that were not frequently used stopped working: passenger door and glove box. Slowly, the driver's door started protesting, as well, until only the ignition worked. My guess is that the ignition and key wore together and the rest did not. The PO bought a different lock and key set for the driver's door and never fixed the rest, so I am on two keys. I plan on rekeying to the ignition (original key) if at all possible to get everything working again on one key.

Sounds like your experince is very similar to my car's.

[bobmagyar]

There is no real easy way out of this situation other then to disassemble lock cylinders and clean, lube, and tune the tumblers.

I used my glove box cylinder as a master as it was in all likely hood the least used on the car. After having a key tuned to that cylinder I then reconditioned the door cylinders and and trunk cylinder. I didn't need to touch the ignition one.

It is very satisfying having all of these sorted. Although getting the door handles off is not the easiest thing to do it gives you an opportunity to lube all the other goodies inside the door.

[Bobs 67S]

This may not apply to your car but for conversation here is what the inside look like on an early lock set:
1) door handle
On the older cars the chrome wears off of the four ridges (circled in red) inside of the door handle and the pot metal corrodes, sticking the in-out action of the button.
2) lock button sleeve
This is pot metal also, and as it wears through its crome finish it corrodes to fine grit that sticks (it seems the lock lube/graphite works as a binder with the corroded material and the sticking problem returns very quickly)
3) lock tumblers
this appears to be brass and doesn't corrode. But a good cleaning brings it back to good service. As "greens" warns, those little thumblers are spring loaded and they go in just one hole each - to match your key) so take care when pulling it out of the sleeve.

Aluminum/Brass keys
The original Porsche key for the 1965-68 locks are aluminum, very light and expensive. Mine lasted about 2 months with a sticking lock. Locksmith made the replacements from brass keys that lasted about 2 years with the same sticking lock before it started a small fracture (first indication it was to break off).

I'll echo "bobmagyar" comments -nothing like a good clean working lock.

Hope this helps.