BROWSE BY BRAND :
Tuesday, April 7th, 2015
In the beginning ….was the rock. When Fred Flintstone locked himself out of his stone-wheeled “Rocks-wagon”, he simply smashed the window with an ever-handy rock – hence the term “Stone Age”.
As man became more advanced and vehicles become motor driven, glass enclosed “automobiles”, a new form of lockout tool evolved – the brick. True, the rock was (and is) equally effective, but in an urban environment, rocks became harder to find and bricks more common. At some point in the 1930’s to early 1940’s it was discovered that a coat hanger could be fashioned into a handy lockout tool. The wire coat hanger was unfolded and manipulated past the weather-strip. The lock/unlock button or inside door handle was gripped with the hook end of the “tool” and lifted. The downside of the coat hanger is the wimpy nature of the wire and its tendency to pull straight when pressure is applied. It also destroyed the weather-strip.
The Slim Jim was born. This tool entered the scene in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s. The origin of the Slim Jim is shrouded in mystery. There are a number of stories floating about as to its beginning. The Slim Jim was originally used to push down or pull up on the “lazy pawl” attached to the back of the door lock cylinder. The pawl is the tailpiece, driven by the key-in-cylinder. Traditionally locking systems mostly use fixed pawls, but back then they were mostly “lazy pawls”
The Slim Jim, when used to manipulate a lazy pawl, was used in its “out of the box” flat form. The Slim Jim was inserted into the door cavity in line with the lock cylinder. The lazy pawl was contacted and pushed down. If this didn’t work, the pawl was lifted up by hooking it with the notch on the tip of the Slim Jim.
Enter the fixed pawl. As vehicles evolved to a fixed pawl, the use of the Slim Jim changed. It was necessary to put an approximate 25 degrees to 45 degrees bend in the Slim Jim roughly 8” from the tip to accommodate the fixed pawl. The bent Slim Jim was used to access the vertical rod. The Slim Jim was inserted in line with the vertical button head. The bend in the Slim Jim extended it into the door cavity, away from the sheet metal and toward the passenger compartment, allowing the vertical rod to be “fished” and “trapped” with the tip of the Slim Jim. A gentle lifting motion raised the vertical linkage and button head, unlocking the vehicle.
Years later the horizontal lock/unlock linkage systems made their debut. In the beginning, this confused some of us. We were use to using a Slim Jim in the vertical manner. It didn’t take long before auto entry technicians figured out that a Slim Jim could be used to open horizontal linkage vehicles by inserting the tools in roughly the middle of the door and angling it rearward about 45 degrees. By lifting up under or coming down on the horizontal lock/unlock rod with the notched tip of the tool, we could grip the rod and pull it forward to unlock the vehicle. Throughout the years, horizontal linkage systems became very common.
As vehicles became more advanced in the 1980’s, manufacturers began to shield their linkage system to reduce the chances of manipulation and keep noise out of the passenger compartment. Additionally, car manufacturers were upgrading the linkage systems that had physical mechanical components that moved, with cable locking systems. These new cable-locking systems are similar to the cabling systems on a bicycle brake system. There are not mechanical, moving parts that could be manipulated. Slim Jims could not be used to open these types of vehicles and the Multi-Car Opening Tool (MCOT) was born.
The method of using MCOT tools is quite simple. The tools in inserted between the weather-strip and the outside of the window glass, lowered, rotated under the glass (inside the door cavity), and raised up on the inside of the window glass so that the working end of the tool is now located inside the passenger compartment. Once the tool is inside the vehicle, different opening procedures may be used, depending on the vehicle. Types of opening procedures include: depressing the manual lock/unlock button, depressing the power lock button, or manipulating the inside pull handle. As more and more vehicles were released with shielded rod systems and other vehicles released with more difficult to manipulate linkages, the need for additional MCOT tools became obvious.
In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s automotive manufacturers were again innovating again and the birth of Long Reach tools was made. Long Reach tools are used for newer model vehicles and the tool is inserted into a gap created between the door/window and the vehicle on the vertical edge of the door/window. The handle of the tool is on the exterior of the vehicle, while the tip of the tool is inside the passenger compartment. This gives access to activating the electric lock/unlock button, manipulating the pull handle, lock lever, or vertical button, or retrieving the keys back through the gap created between the door/window and the vehicle on the vertical edge of the door/window.
In today’s world of auto opening, the rock and brick are still effective (although a bit messy). Today’s vehicles confront the auto entry technician with a myriad of challenges, necessitating the correct lockout knowledge and tool kit.
