164 door lock and the criminal mind

[C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

It may not be widely known, but a popular method of stealing cars is to use 
a pair of barber's scissors. These are used in an unspecified way (no sense 
in popularizing the method any more than necessary) to steal mainly cheap 
domestics and some Japanese cars. Most European cars are immune to this 
method but the dimbulbs (are they employable even?) that resort to this 
activity are of course fairly ignorant and occasionally try it on for size 
with your beloved Alfa. My 1984 SAAB 900T and my 1998 Mazda Protege have 
both been blessed with such unsuccessful attacks. The result is a sturdily 
unstolen car with a driver's door lock in various states of violation. In 
the case of my sturdy SAAB lock, it continued to operate but not very 
happily, a new lock was the cure. In the case of the Mazda, the lock would 
not accept the key.

If the metal watershield in the lock is trashed then chances are very high 
that it has been barber scissored. Sometimes the barber scissor blade 
breaks off in the lock which prevents the key from being inserted all the 
way. More often, the lock tumblers get a thrashing which causes them to 
bind or refuse to operate. You can lube such a lock forever without 
improving the performance. Replacement is the only solution. Now if I ever 
catch one of these cretins trying this on for size with my car he may be 
able to get a job with a circus as a sword swallower ......
Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
91 Alfa 164L, White, original owner

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