Nick Evans
Registered user
Your correspondent is new to these parts, and to BMWs in general. Yesterday the shiny new 49l case arrived from Germany (£400) complete with codable lock. The naive user thought he had followed the instructions supplied but, as I am sure you are beginning to guess, he had not and he managed to insert the lock such that it would not rotate.
Fortunately the case was open and thus began a long a tortuous process of sorting out the mess. If it had been locked when I put the barrel in I would have had to drill the barrel out.
First off, have to say thanks to people who have posted stuff online, without whom I would have an expensive shoe box. I tried first to do the "poking the side of the lock to release the barrel". I did this for many hours to no avail. Eventually I decided I needed to get closer to the lock and so took the box to pieces, fairly obvious to begin with, the fasteners under the handles were a bit tricksy but eventually I removed the inner tray. I again tried to poke the side of the lock but once more to no avail.
Next I removed the lock mechanism from the case; even with it in my hand and looking directly into the side of the lock I could not get the barrel out, so I then disassembled the lock itself. It came apart quite easily and I could (finally) remove the lock barrel.
At this point I did the online thing and coded the barrel properly (a 5 minute job when you know what you are doing) so I could reassemble with a working lock and test as I went along. Once I put the barrel back in I realised I had forgot to grease it but I will send some light oil and graphite in there later. Next issue was to reassemble the lock, this took an hour and a half to work out what all the bits do and to make sure everything worked (if you do it wrong then you cannot push the barrel to open the box). Getting the liner back in is quite easy; you have to make sure the actuator for the box release is properly located in the t-track (easy to see if it is in bits in front of you). The difficult bit was setting the 2 mechanisms for the box lock and the lid lock in the correct places for the handle to go back on, I lost track of how many times I removed and replaced the T25 self tappers under the handle.
The whole process started as a 10minute job at 7 in the evening and finished at 3 this morning. The instructions with the lock were completely inadequate in the end, even once I knew what I was doing from watching someone else do it they were not clear enough.
Moral of the story, when in any doubt, bit of YouTube and research first. Thank you to those who post videos and advice in places like this. I would also say that I do not think it is possible to remove a barrel without disassembling the box; even with the lock assembly in my hand I could not get the properly coded barrel out (see note about grease).
Fortunately the case was open and thus began a long a tortuous process of sorting out the mess. If it had been locked when I put the barrel in I would have had to drill the barrel out.
First off, have to say thanks to people who have posted stuff online, without whom I would have an expensive shoe box. I tried first to do the "poking the side of the lock to release the barrel". I did this for many hours to no avail. Eventually I decided I needed to get closer to the lock and so took the box to pieces, fairly obvious to begin with, the fasteners under the handles were a bit tricksy but eventually I removed the inner tray. I again tried to poke the side of the lock but once more to no avail.
Next I removed the lock mechanism from the case; even with it in my hand and looking directly into the side of the lock I could not get the barrel out, so I then disassembled the lock itself. It came apart quite easily and I could (finally) remove the lock barrel.
At this point I did the online thing and coded the barrel properly (a 5 minute job when you know what you are doing) so I could reassemble with a working lock and test as I went along. Once I put the barrel back in I realised I had forgot to grease it but I will send some light oil and graphite in there later. Next issue was to reassemble the lock, this took an hour and a half to work out what all the bits do and to make sure everything worked (if you do it wrong then you cannot push the barrel to open the box). Getting the liner back in is quite easy; you have to make sure the actuator for the box release is properly located in the t-track (easy to see if it is in bits in front of you). The difficult bit was setting the 2 mechanisms for the box lock and the lid lock in the correct places for the handle to go back on, I lost track of how many times I removed and replaced the T25 self tappers under the handle.
The whole process started as a 10minute job at 7 in the evening and finished at 3 this morning. The instructions with the lock were completely inadequate in the end, even once I knew what I was doing from watching someone else do it they were not clear enough.
Moral of the story, when in any doubt, bit of YouTube and research first. Thank you to those who post videos and advice in places like this. I would also say that I do not think it is possible to remove a barrel without disassembling the box; even with the lock assembly in my hand I could not get the properly coded barrel out (see note about grease).
