How do I remove this lock?

[flyfishrra]

Anyone know how to get into this lock or how to get it off? I am trying to either get a key made ir replace it and I cant get into it! Help!

[Bigventure]

Just an idea for you. You could get one of those slide hammer dent pullers. Then, screw it in and hammer it out. Just the lock part should pull out. The locks have brass pin that keeps it in place. It's should be easy to pop. I've done this on motorcycle collum locks. A new lock comes with a key.

[purman]

What are those rivets in the door jam holding, maybe they need to come off? This looks like a custom job IS IT? did you try tapping on a screw driver from the inside.

[NorthernWind]

On the inside of the door it looks like 2 holes 1 above and 1 below the square shaft, have you looked in through the holes to see if there are screws holding the dead bolt, if not there may be a spring clip around it, they are much easier to get in than to remove.
Good luck,
Steve

[perryg114]

You can take the whole thing to a locksmith and they can make a key by feel. It is amazing to see them do it. They start with a blank key and in 5 mins they have a working key.

You need to remove the inner skin next to the door which may include removing a window frame trim on the inside. Once inside the skin, you need to remove all the white sticky caulk and then remove two 1/4-20 nuts from the top and bottom of the handle for a total of 4 nuts. When you get the handle out there will be two screws that hold the lock core in. I replaced the lock core because some idiot PO tried to drill it out. The new lock core was too small so I had to make a new trim ring to fit the new lock core.

Perry

[dwightdi]

If you do not have a service manual, call Jackson Center and ask for the service manager. he should be able to tell you what to do without breaking some thing else which might be no longer available or expensive. Mine does not work either, so I just use the deadbolt lock.

[Excella CM]

Have you tried just pushing it outfrom the inside?

[flyfishrra]

Thanks everyone! I think perry got it. The rivets in the door hold that part of the dead bolt in. Had a lock smith over to look at it and they couldn't get in it. That is why I posted. He tried to do an impression as well and said that it was flat teeth and just couldn't get enough to make a key from. He said when I can get that core out let him know and he will make a key but until then I can only use the bolt from the inside. I did get keys made for the door and all the access panels from him since the PO didn't have any keys at all! So now at least I can lock stuff up but just don't have the dead bolt working from the outside yet. At some point I will go ahead and take it all apart. Is there a specific rivet gun to have or pretty much any good one will do? Plus is there a special tool to drill out rivets without making a disaster? I know about the shaving tool for the outside rivets but wondering about drilling them out?

Matt

[Skatiero]

Not All locksmiths are equally experienced. Try a more experienced locksmith! (My husband is a master locksmith, but we live too far from you.)

[perryg114]

You can remove the rivets with a #30 drill bit. You can use standard 1/8" pop rivets to put stuff back. You can get them at Lowe's Home Depot, Walmart Etc. You all aluminum pop rivets. I order them from mcmaster.com but you should be able to find a local source.

Perry

[OverToyed]

Thanks for the post Perry.

I have the same problem except the entire key cylinder fell out somewhere. I was going to cut a large hole in the inside skin so I could get to the back of the lock (and make a nice patch to cover the hole) but apparently that's not enough. Its going to be an ugly job but at least you saved me from making a useless hole in my wall.

[OverToyed]

OK. This is getting out of hand. The rivets are out of the interior panels but the panels aren't budging. I'm now remembering something a dealer mechanic said about having to remove the door frame to get to that handle and then the lock? I see pop rivets inside the door frame but I'm wondering if the panels surrounding the door are folded over inside the door opening so the whole door frame has to come out to get at the back of the handle.

Anyone have any tips besides give up?

[desertair27]

I had to remove the door frame which was held on by a couple of rivets and metal clips from the inside. Once I got the door frame off I was able to get the inner panels off.
Good luck!

[OverToyed]

I was hoping for a magic fix.

[sandlapper]

That's the Airstream way: great trailers, takes 3 times longer to work on them.

[jump]

I had to replace the dead bolt .. It was all jammed up ... I removed the frame around door, removed frame around window, drilled out the rivets for the panel ... Now was able to get to the lock - replaced dead bolt ( ordered thru AS dealer) then re-assembled.

[OverToyed]

Ok. Its out. No, you do not have to remove the entire door handle and no, you do not have to remove the door frame either

You DO have to remove the enough rivets on the inside door trim to allow you to pull it out and bend it out of the way, The interior panels are not folded into the door opening. The inside trim panel around the door does hide additional rivets that have to be drilled to get the skin out of the way.

The actual deadbolt mechanism is completely separate. There's a square brass shaft that runs from the back of the outdoor key way, through the deadbolt mechanism and into the interior of the camper for the indoor knob to attach to.

The deadbolt mechanism is attached only by the two large rivets above and below the deadbolt where it protrudes through the door jamb. Once the interior skin is off, this deadbolt mechanism will have to be removed.

Once the deadbolt mechanism is out of the way and the gobs of hardened goo that is splattered everywhere are removed around the upper door handle assembly you'll see two allen headed screws that hold the entire lock mechanism in place, right above the larger bolts that hold the door handle onto the frame.

Remove those two screws and you can easily pull the whole cylinder out the front.

I'll post some kind of "how to" video later.

[sandlapper]

Nice work. Thanks.

Looking forward to some pix.

John

[OverToyed]

OK. Here goes. On my model (92 Excella 29 foot) I had to remove the inner skin around the window plus the drape mounting hardware since that screws through two layers of skin in some places.

Next, to remove the skin around the door latch to get at the back of the lock (you only need to get at the upper outside door handle mount, not the lower, if you're after the lock instead of the whole outside handle) you'll need to remove the rivets you can see as well as those rivets from the panels above and below that protrude through both panels to lock them together.

Next, if there are rivets you cannot see hidden under the inner door trim like on mine you'll need to remove enough of the rivets that hold the trim in place so you can carefully move it out of your way. I didn't take it all the way off. You'll see the standard 1/8 rivets inside the door jamb. The door trim moulding is a T shaped piece with the long part of the T fitting between the inner skin and the door frame. Start from the bottom inside the door jamb and work up on the lock side. I had to remove all of them until just past the spot where I bang my head every time I have't taken the camper out for a few months. Once that trim is GENTLY pried away you can move it out of the way, remove the remaining rivets and see the next set of problems.

Unlike deadbolts you've seen in your house, the deadbolt in the camper is completely separate and self enclosed. Its held in by three things. 1. The two large rivets above and below the bolt that you can clearly see in the door jamb. Second, the square shaft that goes from the inside knob through the deadbolt unit and into the back of the outside lock cylinder that rotates when you turn the key. The exact piece that rotates on the back of the lock and extends through the deadbolt mechanism is called the "tailpiece" you will hear this term again. Third, wads and wads of hardened goo that were squirted into the gaps between the deadbolt mechanism and the door frame and other parts to provide extra support back at the factory

First, remove the square shaft. This first move seems obvious so I included it. I should ad that on my unit the shaft was missing and likely fell outside the camper when the lock cylinder itself fell out. The only thing I can see that would have held it in place is the inner knob that one would have turned inside the camper to set the deadbolt. I'm guessing here since mine was missing.

Second, drill out the two rivets holding the deadbolt in place, located above and blow the actual deadbolt inside the door jamb and cut away the chunks of hardened goo (be careful not to cut yourself or the wiring) and remove the unit. Once the rivets and goo are gone it will come out easily. Be careful about prying it out. The ears that the rivets go through were clearly sharped with a bench grinder on my unit. I assume the deadbolt unit used to have a much larger metal mounting flange on it but it was ground down to fit inside the door frame. Mine was ground so close the metal around the rivet holes was VERY thin.

Once the deadbolt unit is removed you can see the allen head bolts that hold the lock in place plus the bolts that hold the door handle on. Remove the allen head bolts and pull the lock out from the outside (don't lose the trim piece that makes the lock look pretty in the door handle).

Note: The tailpiece, in my situation, was the hardest part. You can buy a standard Schlage lock from Home Despot and get the entire inner piece, already keyed and assempled for about $40. Just remove one screw from inside the Home Despot set and the piece you want will fall out. The trick, however, is the new lock comes with a tail piece that's designed to work with the new deadbolt that comes in he package and the inside knob or second deadbolt in the package. This won't work with your Airstream deadbolt.

You can remove the Schlage tail piece pretty easily by depressing the lock pin with a pencil tip and turning the knurled outside nut. It's an L shaped piece of metal with the short end inside the lock and the long side extending out to go through the semi square hole in a Schlage deadbolt. It fits half the semi square hole and the idea is the other side of the tail piece will fill the other side of the hole to make a complete unit.

The problem is that the Deadbolt unit in the Airstream has a 3/16 square hole, not unique Schlage shaped hole, and the inner knob also has a 3.16 square hole. The Schlage tail piece is long enough to go into the deadbolt but its a but too wide and part of it is rounded.

Here's what I did. I checked with all the local locksmiths for a unique tail piece that would accept a 3/16 square shaft and no, they didn't have one. I checked with Airstream and no, they don't make the lock set anymore and are out of stock. You are on your own.

I'll cover what I did and what I should have done.

What I did:

Loosely replace the deadbolt back in the door frame. Insert the new lock and Schlage from the outside of the camper to see if the tail piece might need to be cut down. If it hits the deadbolt, just make a pencil mark on the outer lock cylinder where it protrudes from the door frame, then remove the deadbolt, put the lock in, measure and mark again. The difference between these two marks is how much you'll have to remove from the end of the tail piece so it won't hit the body of the deadbolt. Leave it as long as you can without hitting.

Remove the tail piece from the lock . Take a piece of 3/16 bar stock (Ace is the place) and file off half of the metal for about an inch, diagonally, so you'll end up with what viewed on end looks like a square with a diagonal slash through it, half with metal and half without. By removing this metal you are moving the center of rotation of your bar stock close to the same center of rotation for the tail piece.

Tricky part: line up the side of the bar stock where you just ground off the metal with the tail piece (keep the bar stock about and 1/8 inch from the short part of the tail piece so you won't interfere with the knurled nut that holds it all in place) and weld, braze or silver solder the two together. You'll now have a perfectly made tail piece that you can cut to length once its re-attached to the door. If you mess up you can probably get extra tail pieces to work with from a locksmith.

The problem with this method: Once the lock us attached, which it pretty much has to be before the deadbolt goes back in because the deadbolt body blocks the allen head mounting bolts, the welded in tail piece is going to cause a problem when re-installing the deadbolt unit. To get the deadbolt back in it has to go in at an angle that its hard to do when that tail piece is inserted through it. I got it to go, but I risked damaging the tail piece with the force I had to apply. Luckily I made it and it works well.

What I should have done: Two options:

1. Get a longer tail piece from a locksmith. They have them. File down the tailpiece a little so it will fit through the square hole in the deadbolt either diagonally or possibly in the narrow direction. File down the bar stock so it fits the remaining square hole in the deadbolt mechanism, do not weld or braze. Install the lock and finesse the deadbolt unit back in place with the tail piece through the square hole (assuming this can be done). Once all the skin is back on insert the fitted bar stock through the hole and into its matching socket in the square deadbolt hole. Cut the bar stock to length so it will be held in place by the inside deadbolt knob once its screwed back in place.

2. Figure some way to attach a square socket to the lock tail piece so that after a much easier re-assembly a piece of stock could be inserted from the inside, lined up, then cut to length so the inside know would hold the bar stock in place.

Done.

I made that sound hard didn't I?