Do original lock cylinders fit repro handles?

[Rust-O-Matic]

I got a new pair of reproduction exterior door handles off ebay for my '66 earlier this week. One comes with a non-locking button for the passenger side, the driver side handle comes empty with no button or lock. They are goodmark brand, and appear to be what all the major vendors sell.

All was well until I tried to put my original lock/button back in the new handle. The lock seems to fit in there fine, but the retainer pieces that hold the spring in do not. The opening in the handle is too tight, and feels like I'm going to break it. After doing a little reading on here and on other vendors' sites, I noticed that some new lock listings say they only work with aftermarket handles. However I do not see anything that says aftermarket handles only work with new locks.

Does anybody that's already been through this have any input? I've contacted the seller, who says the originals should fit, but I'm not sure that's true. I just need to know if there's something wrong with my particular handles or if I just need to order the "correct" locks (which are almost twice the price of the handles).

[dwcardfan]

I had the same problem with my aftermarket handles and locking cylinder. I just took the retainers to the bench grinder and ground in down until it would slide in and out smoothly.

[Rust-O-Matic]

Thanks, I guess I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who has run into this. I'll have to do some measuring with a caliper to see how much material needs to be removed from the retainers, if that's even possible. The button-side retainer fits in there, but is real snug and doesn't slide. The one that goes right behind the clip on the back looks like I'd have to pretty much remove the whole outside of it just to get it in there.

I sent Goodmark an email asking them to verify whether or not the handles are supposed to work with original cylinders. Haven't heard back yet, but I'm not holding my breath. I generally get much more useful info out of the guys on this site than I do from contacting manufacturers/distributors.

[dwcardfan]

I ordered my replacement door handles and locks from LMC and they state that the original locks will not fit and that you have to purchase the aftermarket locks to go with the handles. Well the aftermarket retainers would not work and that was what I ground down to slide on and out smoothly. Hope that helps.

[Rust-O-Matic]

That definitely helps, thanks for the clarification DW. I think I'll pull the button out of the new passenger handle and measure/compare the button and retainers with the originals before I decide to order anything.

[Steve66]

I put a new LMC lock cylinder into my old door handle and it didn't work either. I can't remember exactly what I had to do anymore but I know it required customization to make it work. I think it was a combination of new and old parts and a little bit of grinding. Of course that was after some local guy who said he could fix my original cylinder decided that after two weeks of fooling with it that he couldn't and it's now half assed assembled. I don't know it it could ever be made to work again now. What's really annoying about it is that now I have a different key for door and ignition.

[earl84]

Originally Posted by Steve66

I put a new LMC lock cylinder into my old door handle and it didn't work either. I can't remember exactly what I had to do anymore but I know it required customization to make it work. I think it was a combination of new and old parts and a little bit of grinding. Of course that was after some local guy who said he could fix my original cylinder decided that after two weeks of fooling with it that he couldn't and it's now half assed assembled. I don't know it it could ever be made to work again now. What's really annoying about it is that now I have a different key for door and ignition.

I know this isn't directly responding to the original thread, but I picked up some original locks on here to go with the original handles. The set also included an ignition that was keyed alike. So nice, but the ignition cylinder didn't fit quite right. I then lost the freakin key! A aargh. Bought a replacement ignition switch from American Autowire, and the new ignition key worked on the original door locks. Not super tight tolerances after almost 50 years, I guess. But I was super happy to have it all one key again.

[Rust-O-Matic]

Damn that sucks, Steve66. Sounds like pretty much every project I ask someone else for help with haha. You're probably already aware, but you can take those lock cylinders to a locksmith and have them keyed alike, and it's usually pretty cheap. It's actually really simple to do it yourself, but you will need an assortment of replacement tumbler pins, and sets of those are higher priced than just having a smith do it. There's several good videos on youtube about it.

Just got the 3rd generic email response from the seller on ebay that sold me the door handles (CarId was there name, for future reference). For some reason they have asked me to contact a dealership for the original part numbers of my door handles. WTF? It seems like a simple question. They sell door handles. "Do they or don't they work with original hardware?" I'm probably gonna end up just ordering a pair of new locks from Brothers' and hoping I didn't make an $80 mistake. Gonna take a second look at mine first though if I have enough daylight when I get home from work.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your experiences fellas. That confirms my suspicion that that the old and new aren't compatible.

[Thommyknocker]

I just stopped by a local locksmith yesterday.
He said 65 to 85 bucks to make a key for the door handle lol

I'll take my chances on the replacement for 35

[Rust-O-Matic]

Holy cow, that's ridiculous! I'd find another locksmith. It's usually less than $20 to rekey a lock in my area, so I would assume the price to file a new key for an existing lock would be similar, or even less. I'm not a locksmith though, so I could just be blowing smoke.

If anybody is interested, I ordered a pair of the aftermarket replacement locks from Brothers' this morning (along with a set of window channels and weather strips). I'll post the results when the new locks show up. Maybe this will help the next guy that has to deal with this.