safe combination changed by itself

[MartyZ 696]

No, this is not a ghost story, the combination on my safe actually changed by itself, i'm assuming from wear and tear.  I have one of the cheap field & stream mechanical combination safes from Dick's, the safe is approximately 6 years old now and recently I have had issues where I would have to dial the combination 3 or 4 times for it to open.  I finally decided to open it up this past weekend to see what's wrong with it and I found that the second tumbler was off by a 1/8 inch.  I now have to increase the second number in my combination by 1 for it to work.

 

Has anyone seen this issue before?

[robot_hell 72]

What were the tumblers made of, tinfoil?

 

I've definitely had several of those cheap gym locker combination locks with +/- 1 worth of slop in  the combination, but nothing like that on a gun safe.

[MartyZ 696]

What were the tumblers made of, tinfoil?

 

I've definitely had several of those cheap gym locker combination locks with +/- 1 worth of slop in the combination, but nothing like that on a gun safe.

The tumbler isn't bent, it's 1/8 inch out of position using the original combination. It looks like maybe the the shaft (or what ever its called) is warn

 

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

 

[tattooo 220]

No thats strange .....

[mipafox 438]

The Curse of the Dicks

[Newtonian 453]

One of my handguns once escaped from the safe. Had put 'em all away after cleaning. About an hour later there was my SP101 on top of the danged safe. Good thing I saw cause it was probably headed out the door to do mischief.

[MartyZ 696]

One of my handguns once escaped from the safe. Had put 'em all away after cleaning. About an hour later there was my SP101 on top of the danged safe. Good thing I saw cause it was probably headed out the door to do mischief.

Luckily nothing has walked out, yet

[tattooo 220]

Thank God

[michaelrc51 0]

Something is wrong here, but the strangest part is how it didn't affect the 3 number. Lots of times safe locks break and this happens but because of the way the wheels work it will inherently affect the combo after it.

Post a pic so I can see what type of combination lock it is and I'll tell you what is going on.

[PD2K 115]

Well at least you now have an excuse to upgrade

[MartyZ 696]

This is what it looks like with the correct combination

 

 

This is what it looks like when I increment the second number up by 1

[maintenanceguy 510]

Bent fly between the wheels.

 

Each wheel has a little tab that contacts the tab on the next wheel. I'm betting that one of those tabs (called the fly) is bent or out of place and causing the second wheel to drop at the wrong number.

 

Everybody's mechanical abilities are different but I personally wouldn't hesitate to remove the nut on the back of the spindle and see what's going on between the wheels.  I'm sure the problem will jump out at you as soon as you spot it.

[MartyZ 696]

alright I'll give it a try, thanks.