Morris Minor Owners Club

I am having trouble with my boot lock. The key tuns in the lock but the lock does not lock the handle (the boot can still be opened). I did a search and somebody managed to get theirs working with a good squirt of WD40. I will try this. I am pretty sure the lock was working very recently. It's a new fault.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Stephen

I found it was wear on the casing. I found i could get it to work by turning it upside down, but in the end i replaced the handle to bring back the originality.

Thank you. I have read up on here how to get the handle off and I could perhaps replace the lock barrel or the whole handle but I really don't want to have two keys for the car. If it has to be a separate key for the boot it is better than a boot that doesn't lock. I keep a few tools and spares in the boot that I do not want stolen. I had hoped that there was perhaps a part that was stuck that I could free up to get it working again.

Hi sorry i should have been clearer -the wear is on the casing that the handle rotates in. The barrel will probably be fine. If you go down the route of a replacement handle, you should be able to swap over the barrel and keep 1 key.

Turning the handle upside down means the lock works on a different part of the casing

Ah I see. Thank you. It doesn't appear that easy to swap the barrel in the handle. There's a dome shaped part that is staked onto the square that has to come off to get to a pin. I would be reluctant to wreck a brand new handle! I will investigate the old handle before spending any more money!

I have the old lock out. For anyone attempting this it is easy if you have a 2BA deep socket and 1/4” extension bar.

It definitely no longer locks.

I am not sure how to remove the dome shaped piece so that it can be re-secured? The metal of the square has been pushed out in the corners to hold the dome piece tight.

Are you sure that it's not been fitted upside down into the boot?

No I had a good play with it off the car and it does not lock.

I now have the lock apart. There is a tiny cylindrical piece that moves the bolt piece as the cylinder rotates. That little cylindrical piece is heavily worn and it cannot hold the bolt. I am no lock smith but one of my hobbies is watch and clockmaking.

Piece "A" fits in hole "C" and when the key is in the lock and the cylinder rotates piece "A" moves bolt piece "B".

In my lock, piece "A" is very worn and cannot hold the bolt. That is all that is wrong with the lock (and maybe many others too). One very small worn piece.

Piece "A" showing extreme wear and likely snapped off short (though no other piece found in the casing). You can see that the top is very worn and abraded, looking like a fracture line, but a shoulder has been worn in it too. That shoulder is so worn that the bolt piece can ride over it in combination with play of the cylinder in the lock assembly.

Back to the question about re securing back together

I drilled a hole in the square shaft just to the right of thr domed piece in your photo and put a split pin in it. I used a couple of washers to take up the play. There is a lot of clearance in the boot aperture so this does no foul.

As an aside I think repro handles are not 2ba.

My new boot handle arrived. I haven’t the heart to butcher it to swap the cylinder so that I only have one key for the car. All fitted now.

If doing this job a couple of tips: to take the handle off you need a deep 2BA socket due to the length of the studs. When replacing a standard depth 2BA socket will enable you to put the nut in the socket and then the spring washer. Then offer the loaded socket up on an extension bar. Swap to the deep socket once the nut is started on the stud. Makes it very easy. Remember a new gasket.

When everything was back on the car I also had to adjust the striker plate outwards a bit.

mowogg wrote: ↑Thu Dec 22, 2022 5:28 pm Back to the question about re securing back together

I drilled a hole in the square shaft just to the right of thr domed piece in your photo and put a split pin in it. I used a couple of washers to take up the play. There is a lot of clearance in the boot aperture so this does no foul.

As an aside I think repro handles are not 2ba.

Excellent idea the split pin. The “repro” handles are 2BA and made by Weston Body Hardware in Redditch. They made the handles originally!

I am going to put the old lock-handle in a box for now. The car now has a new lock-handle albeit requiring a different key to the rest of the car. In the New Year I will take the old lock-handle to an old fashioned locksmith in town. I am sure he can replace the worn out pin and then the old lock will be fully functional again and could go back on the car. The chrome is so good on the old handle that I would have no hesitation in putting the original one back. As it happens though, the "repro" is beautifully made and the quality seems even better than the original. The new handle came from ESM for anyone who is interested. I think Moss sell the same WBH handle but their prices are higher at the time of writing.

Before I put the stuff away a couple more pictures showing how the bolt piece actually locks the handle. I am posting this because I could not find any pictures or explanation of how the lock works on the internet. You can see that wear in the casing is extremely unlikely to be the cause of the the lock failing to lock. What happens is the little pin in the end of the cylinder fails to throw the bolt piece properly due to wear.

Just an update on this.

It annoyed me that the car had 2 keys. 1 key for the doors and ignition and another for the boot. This is because it is pot lock when you order a new boot handle and you cannot specify a lock with the correct key code. Of course if your existing cylinder is in good condition you can swap this into the new lock and retain 1 key for all of the locks and ignition.

My cylinder was worn out so there was no option to swap the cylinders over. Instead, I took the lock to a master locksmith and he rekeyed the lock so that it works with my key that operates the other locks. This is done by changing the guard pins in the cylinder.

Here you can see that disassembly of the new lock is not easy because the cup shaped piece is held by the metal on the spindle having been spread out. One solution is to file off the metal of the spindle that is retaining the cup and then the cup will come free. Top re-secure the cup, 2x slots are cut in the spindle and then a retaining clip can be fitted.

Stephen