Tony said that the plug slides forward and back, with a spring behind it.
With that setup, four cutes is likely to work, since you slide the key
and plug further back for the offset position.
On Wed, 9 Apr 2025, The Doctor via cctalk wrote:
The photos of the plug, of the dorsal surface, show the three sets of pin
stacks,
though. The whole plug moves in and out by the spring. The leftmost set of pin
stacks is physically offset by a position of one pin stack.
I might not have been clear in the terminolgy that I used, . . .
The plug is the small (between 1/2" and 3/4" diameter ) cylindrical
part that the key is physically touching touching. The plug rotates
within the "body" of the lock. Turning the plug turns the cam or other
actuator, such as a rotary switch, behind the lock that does the physical
work
The in/out motion relative to the body lines up the cuts of the key
offset front or back relative to the three sets of chambers in the body.
The key moves with the plug, so the key itself is further in or further
out relative to the body of the lock.
As mentioned, if the plug did not have that front/back movement, then the
simplest way to accomplish it would be a 5 cut key, that engages four
(1-4) cuts of the key with one of the pin chambers, and engages cuts 2-5)
with the offset chambers. That would require that the 4 pin stacks
of pinning of one (or two) chambers be the same pinning as a different
set of four chambers further in or out. such as depths of cuts of the
key as of 5 6 7 8 9 and 6 7 8 9 3, which could be a key cut 5 6 7 8 9 3
It is a clever way to make one key work them, but with an "interlock" to
prevent accidentally turning too far. Just like having to press down on
the shift lever, or press a button on the side, to shift a car into PARK
or REVERSE, so that you don't accidentally do either of those shifts
while you are PRNDLing down the road.
In terms of how much slop there can be, . . .
<elided>
<making notes...>
In the 1970s, back when car door keys were different from the ignition
key, we had a situation where there were dozens of mutually inompatible
key blanks (doors on Honda AN600) Only a few of those were available.
So, we ground down some keys to make them fit different keyways. But, a
very thin key could fit all of them, although it would break earlier than
the correct stock key would.
--
Grumpy Ol' Honda Fred [email protected]
