A customer in Ashford got in touch because the front-door multipoint lock would no longer secure properly. The handle would lift, but the key would not turn far enough to stop the locking points from disengaging again.
I removed the complete mechanism from the door and opened the gearbox to find out what was happening internally.
The fault turned out to be surprisingly small. A piece of broken spring had moved into the path of the locking bolt and was stopping it from travelling far enough to engage correctly.
Once the broken section was removed, there was still enough of the original spring left to perform its job properly. Rather than replace a gearbox that could still be repaired, I cleaned the internals, lubricated the mechanism and rebuilt it.
After refitting the multipoint system, I tested the handle, key and locking points several times. Everything was operating as it should again.
These are the repairs I enjoy most: a small internal fault found, the original mechanism saved from the scrap pile and the customer spared the cost of a replacement.
