My ignition has been fully functional but never really perfect since I got the car, often if I tried to put it in accessory it sticks a little bit. Now I shut the car off, and it will not let me turn the key all the way back, nor can I get the key out. I don't want to use too much force....I can just leave the key in there, but that poses a theft risk, and also the shifter can move out of park. I figure I probably need a whole new lock assembly right? And I'm sure VATS and the airbag are gonna make that a piece of cake How much does a new lock assembly cost, and is it possible to get one that uses your specific key? I just got a copy of my key made, so it'd cost me another $50-$70 if I have to get two new VATS keys made for a different lock. Do you also have to buy a certain lock depending on what frequency your key is? I'm also gonna assume you'd need to take the steering wheel off to install a new lock.....how do you accomplish this on an airbag equipped car?

 

just a thought my vette does the same thing!! if i would the shifter in and out of park it will finally come out..but my problem was the same i think i need to adjust the shifter

just a thought
max

 

Yellow,

The lock cylinder itself doesn't measure the resistance of the pellet in the key blank. There are two spring contacts in the lock cylinder and a corresponding connector that plugs into the harness in the steering column. The ECM does the VATS decoding, not lock cylinder. Get a regular off-the-shelf lock cylinder woth the VATS pigtail and swap it out.

Make sure you disconnect the battery negative before doing ANYTHING to the S.I.R. Make sure you correctly center the firing coil when you reassemble the top end of the column.

It only takes a couple more steps with the air bag. The rest is normal.

 

My 80 had this problem and it wound up being the linkage from the tranny to the steering column which locks the column when the transmission is shifted into park. Grab the collar on the steering column and turn it to either the left or right and then try to remove the key, i don't remember which side it was.

 

This exact same thing happened to me last summer. Just got home from golfing, pulled into my driveway and could not turn the ignition all the way back. I was cranking on it so hard I broke one of the tabs that you use to turn the ignition... heh

Well needless to say, I pulled everything apart, pretty easy to get it all apart, got the switch out and it was toast, couldn't get my key out, grabbed my spare key and headed to the dealership. Total cost? it was like 58 bucks for the ignition cylinder, and 26 bucks for a new key. New cylinder = new key grind, so my new spare key was useless...

The hardest part is putting it all back together, almost need two people when you have to compress the one of the parts and hold it to get the retaining clip on...

It isn't too bad..

 

Well, since mine decided to finally quit altogether when I was no where near home, all it entailed for me was calling a locksmith and paying him $337

 

This message of mine, with pics, may help: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=162390

 

Graphite - 2 bucks