ive got an 84 firebird. some goofball before i bought it drilled the key out for the ignition and im trying to convert to switch shutoff and push button start. ive attempted to try it myself not knowing what the hell im doing, could someone please direct me into a book for dummies on push button start install?

 

If the key hole is drilled out, your best bet would be to replace the ignition housing. you can usually pick this up from a wrecking yard for no more then 100 i think

a friend of mine spliced his ignition to 2 switches on his 4x4, but ive never seen it done on an f-body..
If your gonna do a push button, make sure you hide the startup so you dont get your car stolen

 

I would think a setup on a car like ours would require two buttons. One for ignition/accessory and another for actual starter operation. It would essentially work like a nascar setup or drag race toggle switch setup. The other idea would be to use a single progressive toggleswitch for your ignition so first position brings the ignition on and one more click up engages the starter when you let go it jumps back to the center position to keep your ignition live. I would think you could simply look in a chilton's manual to find which wire runs what on our ignition. Some of our cars have a resister that you'd have to bypass. For security though I would probably put in a regular keyed ignition or anyone smart enough to flip a switch will boost your car.

 

something like this maybe...

http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=867

or this

http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=866

 

well if you drop your steering column down on top near the bottom is a box with a bunch of wires running in.it also has a rod running in from the key switch.take that box loose and slide the switch in the box and it will start.if you want a push button start then all you have to do is look and find which wire is the main hot wire.then find which wire is for the on postion.hook these up to the toggle and run the start wire to a push button with a hot wire and you have it.but i would hide it good or you would be running the risk of having your ride ripped off.the switch went bad in my wifes car several weeks back i just took the box loose and used a screw driver to slide it to start.it worked fine til i had time to get a new switch put in it.

 

I always thought a push button start would be cool on our cars, and thought about it alot myself, but our car would still need a key in the ignition for the steering wheel to unlock. I always thought about finding a column that the doesn't have a ign on it, like say a newer monte carlo, and install a trick looking start button like the new corvettes and xlrs. I weighed it out in my case and right now it's not top priority so maybe if I get bit by that bug again I may sort it all out, but for now I'm sticking with my keys. If I went this route I'd also have to install some sort of kill switch or starter kill switch so that when I'm not in the car nobody can start it since a key would not be needed. Just an idea I've been thinking about. Just whatever you do don't install one of those big balky doorbell type starter buttons, they can really bring down the look of the interior quickly.

 

Im really interested in this thread because I wanted to do the same thing to my car but decided to do paint and some other stuff first. Also no idiot would ever try to boost my car now. Its too noticable and you'd be tagged in three seconds. I hope some one really knows how to do this because from what I've read my only real idea was leave the stock setup on my sterring column and just hide the two buttons. I figured that you could use a toggle switch for your ignition/accesories and a button for the starter because your not supposed to hold the starter after the car is on anyway so a toggle is needless. I need to know if you can bypass the sterring wheel lock with out changing the steering column though because if I have to do that then screw its not worth it.

It would be pretty sick though to get in the car and flip up one fighter toggle and psuh a little red button to start the car.

 

It's possible, but does require a bit of disassembly of the column itself. I took mine out when I had mine torn down to tighten the tilt screws.

ALTHOUGH... I'm sure there are many reasons why the lock is there in the first place... I'm just too lazy right now to think of those.

 

Thank you all for the info, some more helpful then others but its the thought that counts right? thats what the wife says atleast. lol ive allready got the switch and button hidden and ive got and extra power kill in the car aswell. I liked the setup that was in the movie "transporter" coded start stuff but thats a bit to pricey for me at this time in life. as far as being stolen noone wants a rusted out firebird with 4 different colors of paint blended in to one nice crappy color lol, but to me looks dont matter. pop the hood and its all crome and chevy orange. If i can pull the front wheels off the ground your paint scheme aint so cool anymore in a crowd. Once again Thanks for all the info on the push button start

 

I have installed a push button start + ing switch. it is cool but you have to make shure you can turn the "Starter Button" off once the car is running or you could have a problem if you hit it.
I have it setup as direct power to a black (hidden) Button switch IN = ON, OUT = OFF then that goes to a red button (that you have to hold down) then that goes to the starter. When the switch button is off the other wont work so it can't turn the starter on. i also have a little red light in the setup so i know when the switch for the button is on.
It is kind funny I gave my keys to a friend that didn't know that i had the ignition key diss-conected coz he wanted to take the car down the road, 5 min later he comes back in the house and he said that he thinks i got a flat battery I walked out the front jumped in the car and it fired rite up.
heh he was looking real confused coz he was still holding the keys

 

You should buy a steering column from a junk yard, and put a basic ignition switch in it. It's not very hard and it looks WAY better than a ghetto setup. After this is you want a button you can add it. I did this when my ignition switch went bad and wouldn't crank the car 1/2 the time. Now I use the key on position to start the car, and when I turn it off it shuts the engine down.