Lockwood 001 cant unlock from outside

[zornt]

I have an older lockwood 001 deadlatch, I had to take it off for whatever reason and now it is back on it wont unlock from the outside.

It seems to be when the smaller auxiliary latch is depressed, it can't be opened from the outside. The key just wont turn. Apart from that it works fine.

Any ideas what might up?

[MikeTNZ]

Hi there Zornt,

Welcome to Bunnings Workshop.

It sounds like there is some sort of mis-alignment between the outside and the inside parts of the lock mechanism.

These things are reasonably simple once you take them apart, but it is important that you mark where the parts

are before doing anything with them, locks are funny things.

It only takes 45° of mis-alignment to screw the two sections up, my neighbour had this same issue last month.

What I would personally do is remove the whole lock from the door and possibly put it in a vice (with soft-jaws) and rotate

either half until both work in agreement with each other and then mark everything how it is and then refit it to the door.

By all means, let us know how you get on, I'm more than willing to help you get this sorted out, there is nothing worse than

a lock that doesn't operate correctly, especially on the outside of a building.

Also, if you do run into further problems, could you please submit a couple of photo's so that we know what we're dealing with,

that would be really appreciated.

Cheers,

Mike TNZ.

[zornt]

Hey thanks for the quick reply

I took another look, and what i think is happening is the physical lock is too close to the door frame, so the secondary bolt is too far in, and becoming deadlocked as designed.

If you look at this https://youtu.be/jqBbEiJuf0I?t=74 you can see he is pushing in the secondary latch which is locking the primary. When i eyeball my current lock its clear the secondary is too far in when the door is shut. I think if I could move the whole body a few mm away from the frame closer to the hinge it should be ok. Does that make sense? I will take another look. 

[EricL]

Hello @zornt 

Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your question about your Lockwood door lock not working from the outside. 

It's great that you've received fantastic advice from @MikeTNZ. Just to add to the possible causes of misalignment. Is there any chance that your door has gone out of alignment? A quick tightening of the hinge screws might fix the door swing and realign your door lock? If that does not work please get back to us and we will see if we can offer another solution. 

Eric

[zornt]

Hey thanks, I ended up just replacing the whole lock, was a bit worse for wear and not sure who might have a copy of the key any more. The new one fit right in no problems.

[EricL]

Hello @zornt

Thanks for the update and I'm glad you got it sorted out. From a safety point of view putting in a new lock is a good idea. It works perfectly and only you have the key to the house. If you have any other ongoing projects, please don't hesitate to share them. Our members would be more than happy to provide advice and information should you need it.

We look forward to seeing your next project.

Eric

[brendawebster44]

Hi , Zornt when you find out could you please let me know I am always a wreck coming home wondering if I am going to get in b🌺

[zornt]

@brendawebster44 what is the problem you are having? It seems like alignment can make all the difference, even a few mm off can cause issues. One of the things with this place is it is a very old building (over 100 years I am pretty sure), and it structurally shifts when the ground is very dry. In the past there has been issues with the door getting stucked, very hard to open. The lock itself was fairly old, it still worked but glad I replaced it. Was pretty straightforward to do, did not have to drill any new holes or anything as the previous lock was a lockwood as well.

[MikeTNZ]

brendawebster,

These types of locks work on a rotary barrel, if the inside part and the outside part are out of alignment by even 5 degrees, it will "freeze"

the key in the lock and make it hard to turn, effectively locking you out, that is what they are designed to do.

I would check for any sort of loose-ness between the inside and outside of the door itself (as in timber shrinkage) that could cause the two halves

of the lock to become mis-aligned, check this with the dooor open to see if there is any "slop" in the mechanism between the two halves.

One critical thing that a lot of people don't understand about door locks, is to never EVER put oil into them, especially where the key goes in.

To lubricate any lock, you need Graphite powder, the same sort of material that they make old-school pencil "leads" out of.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers,

Mike T.