Flip Kwikset left-hand lock knob to right-hand keyhole reversal

['Key]

agree, they shue could. they use to include a tool in the box. but that was many years ago...

[Steve]

That's wrong. The pins in the keyway should be on top. Following your instructions they may or may not end up that way. If the Keyway orientation is not right for the handing of the installation then the only way to correct it is to flip the cylinder.

[Steve]

You don't absolutely need to pull the lock cylinder to install the lock and have it work but the keyway may be upside down. The lock will still work and the people who are saying you don't need to flip it probably don't even know that the pins are supposed to be at the top of the keyway. If they aren't, even on an interior install where water etc isn't a factor all debris from normal operation winds up going right down the pin wells. A broken or collapsed spring will also hang it up whereas if the pins are at the top gravity is your friend.

['Key]

it really depends on if the dead-latch is installed correctly. many incorrectly installed dead-latches doesn't allow the dead-latch itself to be restricted. as you probably already know, it has to be restricted from extending all the way out before the dead-latch function will even work.

my2¢

[Steve]

The catch is that the pins may or may not be at the bottom as opposed to the top. If they are at the bottom the only way to correct it is to pop out the cylinder and turn it 180 degrees.

[Steve]

Why the hell do you do this? The lack of a ">" in front of your text and the presence of it in front of the quoted text as well as the information following "from" tells everybody who is writing what.

[Roger Cann]

Correct..

[Steve]

I've found when you knock it out it's the same as pulling it from the front. Usually distorts the clips a little which granted is a small thing and easily fixed, but it bugs me to even slightly damage something I'm being paid to work on, if I don't absolutely have to. Then again some people complain I'm a damn perfectionist and it drives them nuts....

[Steve]

Before my time. I always thought they should put one in there. Cost to them would be less than 50 cents (I can never remember the ASCII code for that damn cent sign when I want it).

[Steve]

That's because you either know a trick that works with SOME door/frame combinations or (more likely) the deadlatch was already bottomed in the hole along with the spring latch rendering it useless. You cannot credit card shim a properly installed, dead latched (which is pretty much all of them sold today) KIK used in a good solid door/frame.

If you want anything that will cause someone

No in many applications they can't (and neither can you) which tells me most of your experience comes from watching Jim Rockford on TV. It always worked great for him, of course there was never anything in the way when he would do those cool J turns in the firebird either.

Even so they can sneak the card around the corner above the latch

[Steve]

Get a lockset. Push the deadlatch back to the point where it would be if it rests against the face of the strike (not down in the hole next to the spring latch like it will be on a crappy install like Stormy does all the time because he doesn't know or care what it's for either) now, while holding the deadlatch in that position try and push back the spring latch.

[Steve]

Someone trained you? I thought you learned how to break stuff on your own.

And you've been looking because you can't figure out how to get the damn things apart either which is a problem given by your own admission it's all you install.

Which I suppose was your attempt at sarcasm. You then went on to bitch and whine that they didn't hire a locksmith, which I suppose I should agree with since theoretically I stand to benefit financially but being that I do all my own home repairs plumbing electrical etc I take issure with none the less. Not to mention that exchange of information for anybody who wants it is more or less why this forum exists. Now you come back sweet as candy suggesting that the seller might be able to help.

I think you have a split personality. I would assume you were being forged except you never post to complain that that's the case so after numerous instances I ruled it out. That said both general methods to get the cylinder out from the back have been posted several times. So you should know how by now and so should the OP..

[Steve]

-lots of stuff from lots of people snipped-

LOL I ran out of a blank a couple months ago and stopped in a Home Depot for it. It took 20 minutes to find somebody "trained on keys" then another 10 to find somebody "trained" well enough "on keys" to find it (actually let me find it) without one to physically compare it to. Then alot of confusion about how anybody could do anything useful with just a keyblank (no I'm not kidding). If you are a homeowner and want a basic F lock Home Depot is as good a place as any to get it but if you want technical expertise.................

Even if Home depot had somebody who could do it LOL the average retail customer doesn't know anything about it until they realize something doesn't look right. If Kwikset didn't suck they would just include instructions and a tool for people who buy their retail product which, yeah, I know, I already harped on.

[Steve]

>

Forget it. He doesn't know. First he said couldn't be done with screwdriver had to have a special tool. Then he said OK jewelers screwdrivers as long as you have two and they are precisley engineered for the purpose bla bla bla. Now he'll say one is Ok as long as it's a screwdriver made especially for working on those super high tech kwikset locksets that require all those special tools. You'd think it was the guidance system on the damn space shuttle he was talking about. Anyway, he doesn't care about damaged clips any more than he cared about ghost keys in that masterkey system he posted about or somebody getting electrocuted when they touch their AC unit or somebody's house blowing up from the gas leak he created when he 'fixed' their furnace. As long as nobody figures out he screwed it up, or at least as long as they can't prove it in court he's happy.

Speaking of the space shuttle: Chris did you by chance moonlight putting insulating foam on the booster tanks used on that thing a couple years ago?

[Steve]

Because it will then be backwards with respect to the latch mechanism.

It's good and reversing the lock cylinder is a 30 second operation if you know how so it's not that big a deal for anybody who does many of them.

The pins are supposed to be up. It's been discussed to death already but the short answer is if they are down they will collect debris. A broken spring will also cause a lockout. In practice it will work for a long time pins down backwards or not and if the OP hasn't figured out how to reverse it yet they should just leave it like that.

[Nate Nagel]

I'll be damned, you're right.

That must mean that there's a whole lot of crappy installs out there, because I can think of at least 3x off the top of my head that I've had to do the card trick and was able to pull it off in less than a minute. Once at a house I used to live in and at least twice on a big, heavy fire-rated door at a place I used to work. In fact, every time I've

*needed* to get in a door, I've been able to.

The Weiser locks on my current house do appear to be resistant to "carding" as well as the metal weatherstrip would make it that much more difficult.

nate

[Roger Cann]

[Roger Cann]

[Roger Cann]

[Roger Cann]