Early Christmas Present

[pegboy]

I went out to the bike today just to start her up as she has been sitting there for a while, uncovered, unloved, i know i'm a bad bad man, the wind torn apart the cover couple of weeks ago and haven't got around to replacing it, so i go to put the key in the ignition and it will not go in on closer inspection some A55hole has put a screw in the key hole and broke it off just below the surface.

Rant over now i will calmed down and open a beer and think of a way to get the screw out:Furious:

Has this happened to anyone else and suggestions on how to get the screw out, I am thinking of drilling but could be a bit savage?

[Albie]

thats odd. Is this some kind of attempted theft. I would take the lock off and do some micro surgery first before the drilling .

[pegboy]

I'm not sure, there are a few kids up the street who stop and stare when i ride by and they have been hanging around out the front lately and always around the bike, i can see the bike from my front room so i have sat there watching them but they just look from afar, not sure, can't attempt the repair until next week.

[Nickj]

You should be able to get the cover off of the lock insert itself which might geive you enough room to get hold of the screw by pulling the whole lock assembly down to as near bits as you can.
If not then maybe a dremel kind of tool with a mini cutting disk would get enough of a slot in it to wind it out. Drillings likely to ram the thing in further and putting in even a small stud extractor will probably just expand the thing more and cause more damage.
If you're lucky and it's not too fat a screw then the lock might be OK, the screw is most likely to have pushed the pins put of the way and they are quite tough. If the cylinder is distorted then the pins might not slide, or even drop or ping out which means it would be buggered.

Turns your thoughts to slow and painful deaths doesn't it.
I had something like this happen to me where I was living once, we'd had a car torched and all the windows on my celica smashed in two events. Police came out with the usual we know who it is but can't do anything. I found that a sensible discussion with these kids using terms and actions they understood worked. Showing serious intent helps, in my case a light 'tap' on the gobbiest twats knee with the promise of much more seemed to help considerably. Slide hammers are very versatile tools.
It seemed to work as we didn't have any of the cars or bikes parked there touched again and they usually crossed the road to avoid me.

[gremlin]

Is there room to get really pointy tweezers either side and pull it out? There are some that are bent at 90 degrees and really fine tipped. It seems a bit drastic drilling it out, you don't know how much junk will get into the lock. Or possibly bend some really stiff wire and hook it out? I broke a key in a padlock and managed with a lot of fiddling and swearing to get it out. Looking back the amount of aggro it caused it would have been easier to buy a new lock!

[Funkatronic]

I know a locksmith who uses a very strong magnet to key broken keys out of locks (aswell as rescuing lost keys in drains)

obviously don't work on aluminum but if the screwdriver tip is steel this might do the job

the magnet needs to be seriously strong tho

hope this helps

ali

[Nickj]

I know where there's a 4 Tesla magnet ;) .. That's just as likely to pull the latch pins out too though.

That's 4 webers a square meter, in terms of what that means a neodymium-iron-boron (NIB) rare earth magnet has a strength of about 1.25 T. A coin-sized neodymium magnet can lift more than 9 kg and erase credit cards.
Won't levitate a frog though, that takes about 16T.

[gary tompkins]

I think a thief tried to yank the lock barrel out. The toe rags use a kind of slide hammer/dent puller tool to pull the barrel from locks, and these pullers have a screw on the end. I'd bet the lock'll be buggered even if you get the screw out, but a new barrel and key shouldn't be that expensive?

[pegboy]

Well i beleive it was an attempted theft also, everyone is telling me the same story with he screw and slide hammer job, then i don't think it was the kids up the street, they are 10/12 years old, so i think someones had a go at nicking it. The screw is really wedged in and will not move at all, i managed to get another one off fleabay for £20 +PP. That was posted today.

Thank you