Help: Casette Cover Lock - Solved

[Van Voyager]

My Voyager came with a locking factory cover for the cassette deck however it did not come with a key and the key for the rest of the locks does not work. I carefully pried the SS bezel off the front of the lock assembly assuming that the tumbler pulls out from the front but it's either stuck in there or the lock body is press 'fanged' around it? Ther's nothing on the front of the tumbler to grab a hold of or access to the rear to push. Anybody else have one of these locks apart?

The circular section around the key hole in the picture below looks like it should spin in the body but there's no movement there at all. Ideally the centre section would pull out, but maybe the key has to be inserted to pull it out (i.e the 'wafers', if the that right term, have to be retracted into the tumbler in order to pull it out)? I'm going to try to 'pick' it.

[Van Voyager]

I gently applied heat and some lubricant to the lock assembly and with a large screwdriver inserted in the 'box' opening on the front of the lock (with a bit of rubber wrapped around the tip to prevent damage to the 'box'), I was able to crack the tumbler a bit right and left. It then occurred to me that perhaps my key did work after all and the lock was just seized (i.e. I disassembled for nothing - oh the horror!). Fortunately, my key didn't fit but I was able to use my key to rock the tumbler a bit more (after adding some lubricant) and by twisting and pulling gently was able to extract the tumbler from the lock. Cleaned and polished everything include the tumbler body, the lock body, the wafers and the springs. I was able to re-arrange the wafers to get a clean fit to my key except for one wafer which I filed down for a precise fit. Put everything back together with some graphite lubricant and peened the SS bezel cover back over the front of the lock (getting the spring loaded key door installed was a bit of a challenge) and reinstalled in the plastic cover. I now have a functioning locking cassette cover.

[VoyKimmer]

And why would you need this???

[Van Voyager]

And why would you need this???

Please no logical questions here - we don't like that

But seriously, I've wondered myself. I guess the first benefit is that the cover stops (or would have stopped - back in the day - when cassettes existed) someone from stealing one of your cassette tapes as the tape can be ejected with the power off. The next benefit is that the cover presumably helps keep rain out of the tape deck although I'm not clear how effective it would be.



PS: Above picture is not of my bike.