Hi all,

I messed with the safe again today and very slowly and carefully dialed the combination and it didn't work. I reset and in the exact same fashion moved the handle towards the open direction until it felt like it was just touching what felt like a rotating wheel attached to the front dial (which bumps along as I rotate to the last number as if something attached to the handle wants to fall into grooves in the wheel with handle pressure). When I reach the last number I cannot simply turn the handle either. I have to rotate the handle back to the closed position (straight down) and then back towards open. In this manner it easily turns counterclockwise pulling in the bolts.

I unscrewed the back door plate to look at the mechanism today and it has what looks like very old axle grease on some of the parts. This is now almost firm and very sticky. Would hosing the entire mechanism down with brake cleaner blindly break or harm anything? Or is this where I should stop?

I took pictures, but I'm having trouble loading them onto this site.