I've been spending a lot of my time working for the snowmobile club. I don't know if I've mentioned it much on here but a couple years ago I became president of the Coldbrook Snowmobile Club. It's one of those things I'd never really intended to do but I guess that describes my life...
Anyway, this time of year the club is busy grooming the snowmobile trails. This involves smoothing the snow out to make the ride less of a kidney buster. Left to their own devices the trails turn into a series of bumps that beat you and your machine to death.
So a couple weeks ago I was taking a machine south and came to a gate. This is not uncommon, the Army Corps of Engineers owns the land and put up gates to keep cars out. The problem here is that I couldn't open the lock on the gate. In the end I had to back the machine 500 yards to a place I could turn around.
The machine in question is the club's 1989 Tucker Sno-Cat
Shown here passing another gate this thing is a pig to back up. After 5-ish years of running the machine I've finally gotten adequate at backing it up but its still a big challenge.
Buddy Ben called the Army Corps and asked them to fix the lock. They tried it and discovered they couldn't open it either so a couple days after that we cut the lock. I don't have a good picture of the cutting or the aftermath but it was a challenge to cut because of its placement on the gate.
Of course the Army Corps wasn't too happy that we had cut their lock and "Destroyed Federal property" and they wanted us to go to a locksmith to get it replaced.
Well I know a little about locks so I retrieved the remains (in the top center of the pic above) and after soaking the lock itself in a variety of magic substances we managed to get it freed up and the lock core removed.
The lock core, is unusual, you can see it's listed as an MX13 which is a proprietary, access controlled core. Meaning they only sell them to locksmiths.
The lock is a common Masterlock Pro 6621. They run about $50 apiece with no core. I managed to score 4 of them on eBay for $50.
Once I had the lock in hand it was simplicity to transfer the lock core into the new lock. If you need to do this you have to open the lock and there is a little allen screw down in the hole that the moving side of the shackle goes into, then the core drops right out. Do be careful as theres a little shim thing on the end of the core, don't lose that. Fortunately it only goes together one way so as long as you have all the bits its no big deal to put back together.
Interestingly Army Corps wanted the old lock back but mostly because it was numbered on the plastic cover part.
I had to pass through that gate again a couple days ago and I'm pleased to report that the lock opened just fine. The problem the old lock had, I think, is caused by somebody using oil in it. Do not oil locks, the oil attracts goo that will seize the lock causing it to get stuck. The variety of solvents I ran into the old cylinder all ran out brown with chunks from the oil in the lock.
I use Houdini Lock lube which I think I got from Amazon, on all my locks. Its some kind of dry lubricant in what I think is an alcohol carrier. It smells like citrus which is nice and doesn't attract dirt.
