Hello, I dropped the steering column and cannot for the life of me remove the ignition switch. There is no clearance for a wrench no matter what I do for the far bolt. Am I missing some step in this procedure? I am afraid even if I get it out I won't be able to get the new one in there!

It's a 1984 trans am with tilt wheel and 5 speed. A few weeks ago it ran great and started right up whenever I wanted to drive it (purchased late April). I parked it with the battery disconnected for a few weeks to do fluids and some other basic maintenance then it would not start. AAA verified the battery is good (almost brand new) starter won't click, interior lights wont go on and headlights will turn on but won't flip up. Very confusing. Any help would be greatly appreciated
sooo far back

 

If I were you, I'd stop what your doing right now, put everything back where you found it, and then do some troubleshooting before considering taking anything else apart. The one thing I can absolutely state for certain is that your ignition switch has nothing whatsoever to do with either your headlight motors or your interior lights, and if I had to venture a guess my first suspicion would be that you've had a fusible link go open. You mention doing some "basic maintenance" , if any of that involved disturbing any wiring in any way that'd be a good place to start looking after you've checked the fusible links.....

 

You can probe the wiring at the ignition switch just where you have it right now and without removing it. Large / heavy gauge RED wires should be HOT at all times.

You should begin your "no start" diagnosis at the clutch switch; IIRC the large/heavy gauge YELLOW wire from the ignition box feeds the clutch switch,...... should have voltage when the key is turned to START. If the YELLOW wire has no voltage when the key is turned to START then the ignition box is suspect.

The clutch switch should also have a large/heavy gauge PURPLE wire,... this feeds the starter solenoid and should carry voltage when YELLOW is 'HOT' and the clutch pedal ( or clutch switch button ) is pressed. If PURPLE is HOT at the clutch switch,... get under the car and verify PURPLE is HOT at the starter solenoid ( when key is in START and the clutch switch button is pressed. )

** Be careful - if it's an intermittent problem or a bad connection the starter might engage while your under the car & fiddling with the wires.

 

If you haven't already, I'd start at the battery terminal connections. Since you've had them off, that would be the first thing to check. Clean the contacts, or at minimum wiggle them around with the lights on and see if they open. It takes very little voltage/current to ignite a filament in a bulb, so even though you can see some light coming from them doesn't mean they're getting an ample amount of either power or ground. Inspect the ground cables off of the battery as well, I've seen cars much newer than yours with broken ends from corrosion or flexing the cable too much at the body and block mounting points.