Dead door lock

[gbianchi]

Anyone with a 90-94 legacy have their door lock die(as in just turns but does nothing). Well heres the deal, the arm at the end that does the work has broken off the tumbler, ya bummer. Its not all bad news, if you can find a junkyard replacement you "CAN" replace the tabs in the tumbler with your tabs. This is not an "EASY" thing so proceed with caution, just getting the lever out of the door is not fun (reinstalling is even less) but then it gets easier, after you have it out you get to tear into the tumbler, take it in the house and make yourself comfy. I should note here that it has to be the same side of the car, remove the broken tumbler from the lever, remove the jy tumbler form that lever. Lay them side by side and compare and plan, now take the broken 1 apart down to just the guts, put your key in and you'll see that the key makes all the little tabs line up flush with the housing. Still with me? O.K now tear the jy tumbler down to its guts, put your key in and you'll notice that some tabs don't line up flush, they might if so YAY. If they don't, pull out the key and you'll see that they spring out a little, what you need to do is swap out the ones that did not line up flush. I should note that I got a little confused for a time during this "operation"! O K back to the fun, the tabs can be pushed out from the side that they are fush with a small screwdriver, you need to change the ones that did not lay flush with the key in the tumbler, change those and check your key if they lay flush your good to test. Place the tumbler with your key back in the housing and give it a turn, should work, if not check it for flushness again, if its close your almost done. I had to do a small bit of filing on the tabs to get it just right.
Now just reassemble the lever and get it back in the door(this part sucks) and reassemble the door and go get some tylenol and go take a nap! Hope this helps someone out. G

[Legacy777]

Good write-up.

I had mine fail back in 95. I just ended up buying a new lock cylinder and had a locksmith rekey it.

[IronMonkeyL255]

I re-keyed my factory replacement cylinder myself.

Not hard at all once you get everything torn apart.