Tumbler wheel scrambler for combination lock

In a combination lock having a lock case provided with front and rear walls and a tumbler post extending along a tumbler axis perpendicularly from said front wall, plural peripherally gated tumbler wheels loosely journalled on said tumbler post, a peripherally gated rotatable driving cam and a rotatable dial for rotating the tumbler wheels to an aligned lock-opening position upon rotation of the dial through an opening combination sequence, and a fence lever pivotally connected to a slidable bolt and having a fence bar to be received in the tumbler wheel gates when adjusted to said lock-opening position for retraction of the fence lever and bolt to unlocking position during predetermined rotary movement of the dial and driving cam between unlocking and locking positions;

• the improvement comprising a tumbler wheel scrambler mounted inside the lock case, a mounting post for said scrambler extending from one of said walls in parallelism with the tumbler axis, the scrambler comprising a scrambler housing and tumbler wheel engaging slide members extending therefrom for engaging at least some of said tumbler wheels, the scrambler housing having an internal cavity provided with guide channels for guiding the slide members for rectilinear reciprocative movement in extended planes of associated ones of said tumbler wheels, the slide members being spring biased to retracted positions from their associated tumbler wheels and having hook formations at their outer ends for engaging the gates of their associated tumbler wheels and displacing them to non-aligned positions during said predetermined rotary movement when the fence bar withdraws from the gates, and said scrambler housing having oppositely curved mounting ear formations protruding from an end thereof opposite the end from which the slide members extend to collectively form a post-encircling assembly receiving said mounting post therethrough and pivotally supporting the scrambler thereon.