Door locks and spring

Alex(Tenerife)

True Classic
So the other day one of the external door locks stopped working. From the inside all was good. So today I removed the outer handle and discovered a few things.

First wow those tiny ball joints are very fragile. I snapped mine with slightest of effort. I was trying to undo the thread on the rod at the time as I couldn't easily remove it. So there was an oopsie.

Second the pin that holds the pawl (I only knew what it was called from this forum!) had a hollow pin in it. I thought it was missing and stuck. Turned out one broken barrel later that the pin was hollow and very certainly still in place! oopsie 2 Even separated as it is now I still can't get the pin out. Its very stuck in there. I am thinking this has not moved in almost 40 years

So what I think was the problem that caused the lock to jam was the smaller of the 2 springs is broken. Its missing one of its tabs.

So for reassembly once I source new parts for what I broke, fix parts I can fix, where does the spring go? I have found plenty of great information on the forum with the parts all separated but as mine was broken I don't know exactly how it all goes back together.

Anyone got a diagram or a photo of it where I can see the springs in place?
 
Thanks for the replies. I think I might be putting in an order to lada power.

Lock Mechanism(sm).jpg


The good news is the barrel repair went well, but the spring is definitely broken and needs replacing. The diagram I found from Jim's search doesn't show the detail I needed. I am guessing that the 2 sprint tabs go into the 2 grooves on the barrel that I marked with red. I can't see any other way it might go back together. Its hard to tell until I get a new spring, but is that how it goes?
 
I discovered in the short term I can bend over the end of the spring and managed to make it stretch to fit.

I now have lovely spring return action on the lock. :)

Just need to get a new ball joint and I am all working again. But this should get it back so that I can have a lock that looks right even if it doesn't work yet
 
Sounds like you figured it out. It's been a very long time since I worked with it, but as I recall you are correct, each end of the spring goes into each of those two grooves. I remember that at least one of the previous threads about door locks showed good pics of how everything goes back together.

I tried bending the broken end of a spring over to make a new 'tab' on it, but it did not work for me. On one the spring broke again as I tried to bend it. And on another I managed to bend it but then the spring was too short to reach around the cylinder without binding. I ended up using the new parts from Lada successfully. Hopefully your fix continues to work good though. ;)
 
Thanks, the spring is a temp fix until the lada parts arrive. The main aim of the temp fix is to stop the spring finding its way into the barrel mechanism. This is what caused my lock to jam up and caused all my problems. The lock may not work but at least it will look right until the new parts arrive.
 
I don't know how shipping differs to where you are, but orders from the Lada supplier to the US can be a little costly to ship IF you only buy one or two items. However the shipping cost does not go up that much as you buy more in the same order. Therefore it is advantageous to make a list of items that you might want (now or in the future) and get it all on one order. There's quite a few Lada parts that fit the X and make for affordable options for normal stuff.
 
Last edited:
Just the lock kit was 7 euros shipping but I ordered a hear core while I was ordering and then the weight went up so it was 36 euros. Still when you add it all up, very good value
 
The small spring is available from Midwest. I just replaced the two on mine. I did the rebend thing initially, but it threatened to pop off at a random time. So I just bought the new ones. I found this thread helpful for seeing how some things were put together:
 
Shipping from midwest is even more expensive last time I checked. I can't fault the price from ladapower, even with the shipping. Lets see how long it takes to arrive.

Larry I also found that thread helpful, however there is no photo of the lock with the spring in place. When I took mine apart the spring was all bent around the barrel, so could tell at first where it went.
 
Not only is the shipping less than a lot of US sellers, but it often gets delivered faster from overseas.

I'm sure there was one thread with a picture of the spring in place. But I can't find it.
 
Last edited:
I couple of experiments show you how it must be installed to get the action required. Took me a few minutes to figure out as mine too was non-functional for many years. All fine now.
 
I'm sure there was one thread with a picture of the spring in place. But I can't find it.
20240504_111039.jpg


As I had it available here is a with spring fitted photo.

I noticed the lada power also does new key/barrel sets for only a few euros. Had I spotted them before I placed my order I would have added them as well. Maybe next time I order from them.
 
You have to really dig through their site, but the Lada source offers a lot of little things like that at a huge savings. ;) It's so affordable I tend to get several extra things when I need to buy something there.
 
Back
Top