1961 Trunk Lock Problem

[Mike E.]

Re: 1961 Trunk Lock Problem

Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gary C.]

Re: 1961 Trunk Lock Problem

Suggest using Kroil Oil couple of days in a row in the lock and on the key both. Much better than WD40 and PB Blaster. Gary....

[Jack H.]

Re: 1961 Trunk Lock Problem

To resolve the issue of insufficient lock permutations, GM made two changes to the key/lock design in 1967:

(1) A 5th tumbler/wafer was added to the existing four tumbler/wafer selections.

(2) Both keys and locks adopted 'keyway' encoding (the horizontal slit in the side of the key blank--it's exact physical location and its width).

For '67 and 68, the raw key blank looks almost identical to those used up to '66. BUT, the side of the key near the head has an alpha character stamped onto it (A, B, C...Etc.) to designate its specific keyway encoding.

Those of us with Shark cars, know this aspect of key/lock operation is judged for factory correctness with the 'acid test' being the lock should 'reject' any key other than the one with the correct, factory original, keyway encoding. By the term 'reject', we mean the key will not insert more than 3/4's of the way into the lock cylinder.

This is common knowledge among locksmiths and later car owners, but it may be a revelation to earlier car owners. I suspect you encountered a mis-match between key blank and lock cylinder with the failure to insert flagging the source of the problem!

[Robert A.]

Re: 1961 Trunk Lock Problem

The funny part about this lock failure was that it had been performing fine since 1994 or so, when I went through the entire car to get my Duntov.

Gary, I would try your Kroil Oil suggestion but the locksmith told me he thought something was wrong with the cylinder itself, or combination of both. The trunk is now unlocked and I won't feel good about latching it until I get a new trunk lock cylinder.

Many thanks again to all who have contributed!