Door lock barrel and tumbler with two-sided key

[mnahon]

The tumbler assembly on my driver's door lock needs to be replaced. It's the later kind with the two-sided key, which seems to be quite hard to find. I assume that if I find one, I can have it rekeyed to my key.

Was this tumbler assembly shared by other models of Mercedes cars of the era, if so, which? Any suggestions on where I could find this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[Aaron h]

Yes.  The W108/W109, W114/W115, very late W110 and W111 sedans, as well as W111 coupe` and cabriolet. 

[mnahon]

Great, thanks Aaron. That's a great selection, and I should be able to find one of those without too much problem.

The trick is getting the right one because there seems to be all sorts of small variations over the years in the construction of the door locks. I have a few earlier ones from W111s and W113s and they seem to be all different.

[wjsvb ✝︎]

Meyer:  I have a pile of door handles from years of stripping old MB's and from a fortuitous purchase at Hershey a couple of years ago.  Also, I recently dismantled my left door lock and window hardware (early 67 113) and fixed it all, so I have some familiarity with the problem.  Can you send me a pic of the offending handle, inside and outside and I'll rummage through for a match.  Jon Sieck 267.994.1965.  BTW, I wish I were still driving to Tremblant and could drop it off on the way.  Aged out of that place a couple years ago!

[mnahon]

Hi John,

Thanks for looking. Here's a picture of the two offending parts. Part #1 is the barrel with the two-sided key. I have similar barrels but only for one sided key. This one is also longer than the others I have and has more tumblers.

Part #2 screws into the end of the barrel. Although it looks OK, it has a crack and may give way when used. It has the geometry of the later part, which is different than the earlier V-shaped geometry that most pagodas have.

One possibility it that I try to braze the cracked and broken parts, but they're made of a very soft metal that I'm afraid might melt during brazing. Another possibility is to try soldering them back together, but that might not be strong enough. Any ideas welcome.

Thanks,

[ja17]

It is a Zinc die casting. I do not know of any welding or soldering process that works on Zinc.

[mnahon]

Thanks Joe,

I will experiment. There's some stuff online (from Muggy Weld) that says can be used to solder zinc castings. I may try that.

[wjsvb ✝︎]

Meyer:  Nuts!  At first pass, none of my handles with locks seem to be a match for your.  I'll keep looking!

[mnahon]

Thanks very much for looking Jon,

I'm not overly surprised at difficulty in finding this. I have a lot of spare parts and none seem to fit. It seems there were a lot of changes in the bits and pieces over the years. Right now, I'm planning to get some W114/W115 handles that may have the right pieces that I need.

The double-sided key was longer than the single-sided, which meant more tumblers and some changed dimensions in the barrel. I'm hoping this may have more in common with contemporary W114/W115 than with earlier Pagodas.

[ja17]

Yes, even the chrome door handle itself is different with the double sided key, but looks identical. I must have a hundred loose sedan door handles. I'll try to look also.

[waltklatt]

Be careful, the sedan cylinders are shorter as the doors are narrower(like 4" thick) than the SL's.
Best to find a post 1970 W111 coupe convertible for replacement.
Those doors are wider(like 6" thick), like the SL's.

[mnahon]

Thanks for checking Joe,

So far, my attempts at soldering have been completely unsuccessful. I'm practising on another piece that I'm willing to sacrifice. I will continue trying. JBWeld epoxy could be a last resort.

Walter, usually the depth of the door is accounted for by the length of the extension (part #2 in my picture above). So that part will be different for different depth doors, but the other pieces, like the lock barrel may be the same. I've ordered a W114/W115 door handle, which is not a big investment to find out if there are common parts.

[mnahon]

I thought I'd give an update on this. I did end up getting a W114/W115 door handle; there were no common parts of any help.

After lots of searching, I found an NOS Pagoda door handle with two sided key and was able to re-key it to my key by moving the wafers around. So I'm now set.

There was one thing I wanted to point out: in about 70-71 when they were using the two-sided key, YMOS made two quite different looking keys.  Online, you can find them, for example as MB 16 and MB 17 (these are Ilco numbers). It turns out that they both fit into the same keyhole. My original handle had an MB 16 key. The new handle had an MB 17 key. I was able to insert my MB 16 key in the new handle no problem; and then re-key it. I didn't find any differences between my old handle and the new one.

[Shvegel]

For anyone faced with broken zinc in the future most good chrome shops are pretty good at sticking it back together.  I had a couple cracked bits that Jim Wright fixed for me without issue.

Meyer,
I think the different keys may be to provide for a “valet” key.  I would assume one or the other is slightly Shorter.  On my 1970 the valet key denies access to the glovebox, gas cap and I think trunk.

[mnahon]

Hi Pat,

The two keys are the same length. They have quite different cross sections (left is MB 16, right is MB 17). But they still go into the same keyhole. See pictures below.

Out of curiosity, the repair you mention for the zinc parts, is it electrochemical? I was not able to find a way to bond these parts. I tried different kinds of solder. Ultimately JBWeld could be used but it probably wouldn't be as strong as the original.

Meyer