Trying to get back to normal

[old yellow 78]

I pulled Old Yellow out of the garage today. It has sat untouched for most of the past year and the begining of this year. Amazingly, it started up after only three tries and seems to run fine. 2020 was an awful year. I lost three family members and I had no time and no interest for doing anything with OY since last spring.

But today, I just spontaniously decided to check it out again. The old spark for it seemed to get revived. I looked around for the things that I had just abandoned when the SHTF last year. I started to do a little work on the dash, and ran into a small problem. So, I remembered the forum and decided to ask for some help.

Does anyone know how to get the glove box lock out of the glove box door? I want to switch OY's keyed lock to the woodgrained glovebox door that I got from Silverd1973. Of course it isn't as simple as just removing the two screws holding it tight. Why would it be?

I think that it might have something to do with this tiny pinhole on the lock faceplate, but I don't really know. And, if so, what about the keyed lock that is on OY's original door? How do I deal with that? Any ideas?

Also, could anyone give me the exact measurements of where the factory reverse light was located on the dash of the F's. I know that it wasn't available for the '78's, but I want to put one on OY's dash anyway. I still have the one from my '76 Volare. I guess it just gets spliced in to the reverse light switch wire, I don't remember, but if not would someone let me know? I'm pretty sure that it is mounted in the lower dash right near the center of this pic, below and to the left of the lower corner of the map light hole. But, I'm OCD enough to want to have it as close to the factory location as possible. If anyone has a pic of one, I would appreciate it.

I hope that those members that I used to talk with on the forum survived 2020 intact are all doing well, and I look forward to meeting any new members that might have come along since last year.

 

[Aspen500]

I'm doing fine, nothing much changed at all last year. Basically, business as usual (meaning work was, and still is, swamped). Sorry to hear about the loss of 3 family members. Tough enough when you lose just one. Welcome back to the forum! Only yesterday I was thinking "wonder where OY went and hope he's OK"

The service manual only tells how to remove a keyed glove box cylinder. Maybe it works on a non-keyed one. Try inserting a stiff wire into the hole with the knob turned to the unlatch position and see if it pulls out. You may have to experiment with what works. Know I did it on my Aspen (no lock) but it was a while ago and can't remember exactly how it's done anymore.

The keyed one says to turn it to the lock position and remove the key. Then insert a stiff wire in rear slot of lock mechanism and depress retaining tumbler into cylinder. While holding tumbler down with wire, insert key. Remove wire and pull out cylinder. What "rear slot" they mean, don't know.

They have no illustrations on the procedure and I found it in the electrical section (seems an odd place for it).

 

[BudW]

Sorry to hear about the loss. Been wondering where ya's been.

I have torn up a few of those glove box latches (and trunk side door latches) in my lifetime – but was shown they were meant to come apart after assembly (without destroying “stuff”).
I forgot how but looked online and found the answer – which is different between locking and non-locking.

Here is what someone else said:
To remove it without damage, you do need the key.

With the key inserted and the latch in the closed position, you press in on a small tab which releases the lock cylinder and allows it to be removed. The common problem is confusion with regard to the tab to press because there are two tabs in close proximity and the obvious one isn't the one that releases the cylinder. It's the hard to see tab more toward the front of the lock. It took me a while to get mine to release; you sometimes just have to play around with it for a while...

Notice the safety pin. a paperclip works as well.

For the locking style.


Sorry, no help on the reverse lamp location.
BudW

 

[old yellow 78]

Thanks Aspen500 and BudW. It's nice to talk with you both again. I lost my mother, brother-in-law, and cousin this past year, and it really knocked me off my feet. But, I'm up and moving again and doing ok.
Thanks also for the speedy replies. I did a little searching online, and found the following YouTube video on how to remove the non-keyed locks. It's on a Duster, but it's the same lock:

That little pinhole seems to fool a lot of people! I don't know why it's there if it really has no purpose. This video shows just what you are saying Aspen500. Thanks for your help.

BudW, that is good info for the locking one. OY's is a locking type, but unfortunately, I don't have the key. The ignition key I have works the doors and the hatch, but the missing glove box key would work that, and the rear storage bins in the wagon if it had them. Since I don't have the key, I was going to try to use an old "round" key from one of my other F's, and try to figure out how to change the lock cylinders to that key. I also have two rear storage bin covers with the locks from a parts car, and would also like to change those cylinders to the same "round" key.

As for the location of the reverse light, I found these pics online. None of them are very good, but they show it is mounted up higher on the lower part of the dash than I remembered. It also seems that they only came on the '76's with four speeds. That would jive with the light that I have which I took off of my '76 Volare decades ago. None of these pics are very good, but if you expand them, you can see how high up it is. Again, if anyone has a better pic of the location, let me know. Thanks.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

I tried removing a keyed one once and wrecked it. Non keyed one should be easier.

 

[BudW]

https://www.scienceabc.com/innovation/pick-door-locks-pin-tumbler-sherlock-doors-open.html This site (or others) might be helpful to understand how the pin-type lock works. I have a huge Chrysler lock pin set – but don't have the main part, the key pin selection tool. My pin set was made by Briggs & Stratton, of all companies. I went to go take a picture of it, but it decided to hide from me.

For something like a glove door lock, it only takes one pin to keep it secure. The more working pins, the better, but usually if a person broke into the car, they are more likely to break more things to get into a locked glove box.

Before taking a lock cylinder apart (ignition, door, trunk or glove) first get a clear table and put down a coarse grain table cloth on it. Those springs and pins WILL (not IF) run/roll away from yon. Shooting out is generally not a concern. They are made of brass so magnets are useless. A person will need to keep the pin pairs together or you will spend a lot of time sorting.
Plan on a quiet evening and things will start to make a lot more sense once you have one apart and see how things work.

I have re-coded maybe 200-300 Chrysler lock cylinders in my life – but its been a while on the older pin type.
BudW

Edit: this is a lock pin set for a house door lock. They operate the same, but pins are different (Chrysler only).

 

[old yellow 78]

OY seems happy to be out of the garage. It's pretty dusty and dirty and I have to clean it up:

I decided to just switch out the entire glove box door rather than try to change the locks and that worked fine. Doesn't really matter to me that much. Then I decided that I'm going to just tear the dash apart and finally put in all the toys that I have been collecting for it. It would be so much easier to do all of it at once rather than piecemeal.

I have a maplight; a digital clock (I found the wire connector for it up in the dash); a reverse light switch (I'm just going to put it where I want); a minty dual speaker dashtop (have to find mini speakers); a beautiful AM/FM/CB stereo transceiver with mike and dash hook; a remote passenger mirror with the corresponding lower dash panel for the control, and a nice woodgrain dash bezel. Now for the job of finding where I put all that stuff.

I really enjoyed taking the dash apart and it was all pretty simple. I labeled everything because this will probably take a while doing it in my spare time (and I don't trust my memory).

 

[BudW]

The big thing is to bag and tag the screws as they are removed. That way, they all go back to same location, if 15 minutes later or 5 years later.
Some of the flat Phillip screws are flat black and others are gloss black (depending if they can be seen, or not) . . . and so forth.
BudW

 

[old yellow 78]

Yep. They are all in labeled Ziplock bags.

 

[Duke5A]

Yep. They are all in labeled Ziplock bags.

I usually don't label my fasteners until I pick them up from the floorboard for reassembly. Really, I use the same label for all of them - WTF. No need for individual bags.