Repacement door/boot key for 2 door 1978 Viva E.

[gurrier]

Hello all,

The only key that I have is the ignition key. I have no key for the door locks. There is an old post on the forum suggesting Land Rover Discovery Lock barrells as direct replacements. I take it that if fitment of the Land Rover necessitates distruction of the existing barrel so be it. I wonder should I try to source replacement handles with corresponding keys-if these are not like hen's teeth.

[droopsnoot]

I don't remember whether you have to have the key in place to remove the lock barrels - because I've got keys for mine, it didn't come up. But I have the Defender lock barrels in my car (an estate, I haven't tried the coupe yet and I believe the boot lock may cause trouble) without any trouble, the only one I couldn't swap for a matching one was the locking petrol cap.

[gurrier]

Surprisingly easy to release the lock barrel. Remove push button from handle. Press down on a brass coloured spring loaded tab (as indicated) in the end of the barrel and release. No key needed. Now just waiting for delivery of Land Rover Barrels.

[gurrier]

Land Rover barrels succesfully fitted to door handles, though not so for the boot lock on my saloon.
The below are the Landrover Barrel
Door Lock Barrel
Boot Lock Barrel


Don't assume as I did that the boot lock is the same as the door lock with an extension on to it. In the absence of a boot lock key the boot lock barrel can not be easily withdrawn - I had to use force to get it out thus the barrel without the wafers. Confirmed with a locksmith that the wafers in the Land Rover lock are thicker than those on the original barrel so changing wafers over will not work.

[droopsnoot]

Someone mentioned that to me before about boot lid locks - on the estate (well, on my estate at least) the longer lock barrel is done by means of an extension that just comes off the end of the standard FT lock barrel.

[gurrier]

Thanks Mike,
One longer barrel in mine. I have taken the wafers out of one of my existing door locks and put them into my boot lock barrel. Now waiting to get a key for my original lock number. That way I should have a working boot lock again. Unfortunate that I had to destroy the original wafers -as it turned out - there was half of a key broken inside the boot lock barrel anyway so I would have been going nowhere regardless.
Lesson learned;- find out what the number is on your door lock first.
This is an exploded view of how the boot lock is configured if you move from the top down:-

Waiting to find out now if the Land Rover key supplier can supply locks with my original number which would leave me with only one key needed for all locks.
There is bound to be a word ending with ..obia that applies to someone that goes to such bother to follow up details like this - let alone document it in a Forum. All part of sharing the knowledge base as far as I am concerned.
Regards. Bill

[Johnboy HB]

It may be possible to re-configure your boot lock to match the new locks, you might find you can use the wafers from your old locks to match the key for your new locks, done this twice now on HB's, once on a previous one as all the locks had a different key, and also on my estate where I managed to match the key from my saloon so both cars work off the same key

[gurrier]

Thanks Johnboy hb -. Awaiting a response from the Land Rover supplier

[droopsnoot]

Waiting to find out now if the Land Rover key supplier can supply locks with my original number which would leave me with only one key needed for all locks.

I've bought two sets of locks now - one in the Sportshatch, and one ready to go in the Firenza when I have time to take the handles off. Both have keys stamped with FT numbers, so I have been looking at autojumbles for Vauxhall-stamped keys with the same numbers and was excited to find one. But, despite having the same number, it isn't anything like the same key. So you may find that even if you get new locks that have the same number, the key doesn't fit. It might be down to me buying cheap locks, of course.

[Johnboy HB]

I looked into replacement lock barrels a few years back before having a go myself & found a supplier called weston body hardware who's owner used to work at wilmot Breedon, the original lock barrel supplier's to vauxhall back in the day, spoke to him once at an auto jumble & his products are made to the same spec as wilmot breedens, so possibly the best quality ones to go for