So I’d like to add my experience rekeying my half doors. Thanks to
@MountaineerTom for this great how-to write up as it was extremely helpful and, in fact, it was quite simple.
I’ve owned my half doors for almost two years now and although the previous owner gave me the key for them, I promptly lost them shortly after purchasing them. Like most others, locking half doors is as useful as locking your front door but leaving the garage door open.
Well , winter boredom hit and since the half doors are sitting in my basement, I figured I’d 1. Fix the loose outside driver side door handle and 2. Rekey the locks to work with my ignition and full door key.
Off the bat, I noticed my half door locks were the same size as my full door locks, not smaller as shown in the pictures from
@MountaineerTom. No matter. I proceeded with the rekey.
Following the instructions in this thread, I rekeyed my door locks. One thing I did differently was I did NOT purchase the wafer and spring kit from eBay. It was $35. I was able to reuse 5 of the 7 wafers in my locks to match my keys. I left the remaining two out. I was comfortable with that as it still did the job. Saved me $35.
Put everything back together, my key worked perfectly on the rekeyed lock, and this is where it all went downhill. In taking the lock apart, the cylinder cap has the be destroyed to remove it. Quadratec sells the caps for $5 for 97-02 locks which are the smaller caps. As I mentioned earlier, mine is the larger cap that matches the full doors.
Long story short, I was unable to find the larger replacement caps anywhere online. I would have to purchase new door lock cylinder kits just to get the caps, which weren’t cheap. I called a dozen locksmiths in my area to which no one had (not to mention not many locksmiths do automotive locks....who knew). I ended up purchasing new locks for $35 from amazon and I’ll live with having a different key for my half doors.
My guess is my half doors are of the 03-06 variety. So it would seem that the 97-02 and worth it to rekey as it wouldn’t cost much. But if you plan to rekey 03-06 half doors OR full doors with the larger silver lock caps, plan on buying new lock sets. Mopar charges $75 per lock I believe.
Hopefully this helps someone down the line that might come across a similar situation.
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