I agree with Mark.
It is very possible and not that difficult, just found out quickly that worn wafers will not work when the lock gets anything in it or New England cold.
Vanagon.com has a vendor in the list....Mark1VW or something like that.
He is on eBay as well.
I have had great success with his products and work.

dylan

________________________________
From: mdrillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 9:45:32 AM
Subject: Re: Door handle/lock changing question

A locksmith can use your good key to find the right wafers for each
wafer position of a tumbler without needing one of your matching good
tumblers. I have taken the wafers out of some sliding door tumblers and
then mixed and matched wafers to make one tumbler work with my key. Not
fast or flawless since I did not have all the exact right wafers from my
2 donors. For a locksmith it should be a snap.

Mark

Jim Felder wrote:
> Guess I wasn't too clear, or else I was and I don't get what you're saying...
>
> I have two unmatched/unkown tumblers (I guess you call them) that came
> out of the donor handles. They are from a late model vanagon and are
> in nice shape, left over from the swap (I put my "old" tumblers in
> both new handles).
>
> I also have a sliding door whose tumbler doesn't work with my key, so
> I have to reach through the front door and slide the inside button and
> then close and lock the front door.
>
> Since I have these two spare tumblers, I am wondering is one of them
> can be outfitted with the proper wafers that would match my
> properly-keyed doors? And to do so, would I need to pull one of my
> properly-keyed tumblers out to show the locksmith, or could the
> locksmith figure out what wafers I need by looking at my key?
>
> Jim
>