The first thing to do is take the locks apart, to see what can be done. After undoing the little screw on the back of the lock and prizing off the swinging arm, (some locks secure the swinging arm with a very small pin crossways through the arm.) the barrel will now come out. (But see the warning below about small parts)....... But how does it come apart?...... I decided access must be behind that bit of tin that is crimped on the front of the lock. After a long struggle to remove it I found, I was wrong! So put the bit of tin back and start again.

I found if I clamped a thin bit of steel in a vice and placed the slot in the barrel over it. I could press or tap the pawls up from below. Carefully, one at a time.

I found out later that some were a very loose fit and if I'd known that earlier, I would have left the key in place while removing the lock to stop the bits falling out and getting lost.


At the end of each slot is a tiny spring. Fish them out carefully with a piece of wire and put them safely to one side.


Here are the pawls or levers laid out in the order they were fitted. The depth of metal at the bottom of each, corresponds to the peaks and troughs of the key.

Place the key that you want to use in the barrel.

Here's where I hit my first problem. There's more than one type of key used on Landies. All the locks you want to convert have got to have the same groove pattern down them. So before you start, try the key you want to use in the locks first. If it'll go in but not turn, that's Ok. If it wont go in you need to find another lock.


Turn the barrel upside down and try the pawls in from the wrong side. This will show you which and where each one fits best. The bottom of the slot should be level with the body of the lock.

The slot in this pawl doesn't reach down to the body of the lock, so it needs filing deeper, or trying in a different slot.

It's easy to make the slot deeper, but not so easy to fill one in! So try them all in different positions, to see where they fit best. I did manage to fill one of mine that was too low, with a bit of "silver solder" (not soft solder) but it was an awful tricky job, to be avoided if possible.

As a last resort you could file the top of one that sits too low.

Put the little springs back in, and replace the pawls in their respective slots (from the correct side this time.) and the result should look like this. With all the pawls sitting flush with the body when the new key is in.


All ready to be re-assembled and replaced in the door.
You can see the end one here had to have its top filed a little. But not much, so it's Ok.

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