Medeco disassembly help needed

Yes the snap ring is rather thin and it retains the scalp (face plate) on the inside cylinder. Unless the ball bearings were driven in to the Allen screws then you should be home free.

Alignment is critical. if for what ever reason the lock does not work smooth when you have it installed, then figure out the problem now, or you might get locked out later.

Actually, that's not what the ball bearings are for. Did someone really do that???

Forgive my misuse of the language. In re-reading what I wrote it does leave the suggestion that I was referring to the ball bearings in the box supplied with the new lock. You are correct the ball bearings supplied with the lock are for the other end of the screw.

But yes I have used ball bearings to seal off Allen screws on things I didn't want anyone taking apart.

Roger:

I have seen that done as well, but wouldn't a healthy does of lock-tite accomplish the same thing and be much easier for you to take apart later on should the need arise??? I mean I am no expert, but driving ball bearings into the allen sockets on the mounting screws seems like it would be a real headache to take apart...

Evan, ~~formerly a maintenance man, now a college student...

It seems lock manufacturers are in a dilemma between a cheap way of preventing (or making it difficult) for the inside cylinder to be removed versus some complex method of securing it in place unless the key is partly turned, or the lock unlocked etc.

It seems Medeco is wasting time providing a 'full' inside cylinder in such cases. Three ordinary pins and no sidebar would seem to suffice.

Yep. As a matter of fact "real headache" is somewhat of an understatement.

Actually you were correct Roger. When I worked at Medeco we developed the D-11 deadbolt and it was always supplied with two sets of two ball bearings. One set was a little larger than the other and the larger set was designed to be put in the mounting holes before the screws. The second smaller set was designed to be driven into the hex hole in the screw. The idea was that you couldn't then put a wrench in them and remove the lock. This was a real danger since it was a popular attack in those days for DCDB's installed where there was side glass.

Those smaller ball bear>

Thanks to those that responded. It was indeed easy to move my lock--although I did have to carefully tighten the 2 allen screws so that everything worked smoothly.

I ended up having more trouble with the Schlage knob that has the Medeco cylinder in it. Unfortunately, it ended up the my key is upside down for the knob relative to the deadbolt. I couldn't figure out how to easily remedy this upon taking it apart.

Other than that, I now have a nice, secure door.

Cheers-Jeff

On the outside knob spindle on the latch side there will be a little hole. Insert the key, poke a small wire or probe into the hole and pull off the knob. Rotate the knob 180 degrees and reverse the procedure. Note you need to insert and turn the key before the retainer can be pushed in to replace the knob.

I tried taking it apart. The problem is that the mechanism that pulls the latch in is oriented wrong and I can't just rotate it, because then it would be facing the hinges. I pulled out 2 cotter pins and pulled a cover off to see if the whole mechanism could be rotated, but it wasn't obvious how I could do that. I'm sure it can be done though--I'll try to track down the model number if that would help.

Jeff

Hey jeff! Earth calling!

Roger just told you how to fix the problem.

Roger wrote: On the outside knob spindle on the latch side there will be a little hole. Insert the key, poke a small wire or probe into the hole and pull off the knob. Rotate the knob 180 degrees and reverse the procedure. Note you need to insert and turn the key before the retainer can be pushed in to replace the knob.

I just re-read this and I may have mis-read it the first time--I had been going at it from the inside knob. Will retry tonight. Thanks.

Jeff out

For clarification, you do not want to remove the lock from the door, but the outside knob from the lock body.