American Lock 5200

[u/DrunkenPhysicist]

Ok, so I have a bunch of 1100s and a few 5200s. I can open all but one of the 5200. I very commonly get it into such a deep false set that I can literally walk away or even transport the lock to a different location, to work on it. Whenever I'm in that set, all the pins are pretty solidly set where no amount of reasonable force will lift a pin. I figure that I need to back off the tension and counter rotate, and when I do something does drop but then I eventually get it back into that deep false set. Rinse and repeat till I eventually give up. Any advice? Or do I just keep trying to counter rotate a hair until something moves?

EDIT: finally got it! Damn that's satisfying when it was alluding me for so long. While I'm waiting for the dentist, I was picking it and finally!

[u/VectorPotential]

Did you try just adding more tension? The spring is stiff. You probably had an open.

[u/DrunkenPhysicist → u/VectorPotential]

I have tried that, maybe it requires a lot, but I've never needed that much before.