ok guys here is a stumper for you, what did the key say to the ignition? give up? today in justin'* bonneville we arn't going to turn!! ha ha ha, i'm not laughing. so my ignition won't turn, wiggled the key a little, went, two hours later go out to car, won't turn, 20 minutes later still won't turn. Come back inside, really pissed off, and yet.. now i'm trying to figure out how i'm going to fix this shiznit. The key WILL NOT move at all it just stays in the locked position. Do I need a new key igniton setup? or what? can I spray some penetrating oil in there? what should I do so that my stupid car will stop the bs?


-justin

I just went on gm car parts.com and they have an ignition LOCK CYLINDER and an ignition SWITCH, i am just going to replace the piece of crap, do I need both, just one, which one?


-justin

have you tried turning the wheel back and forth while turning the key? If so, and it still won't turn your tumblers inside of the ignition switch itself have probably failed. the only real way to fix this is with a new ignition switch. (costly)

yep turned the wheel, tilted the steering wheel every which way. actually i just was one the gm parts site and a new switch is just $45, i'm sure that includes a key, if not a locksmith can make one cheap, I think.

-justin

I think you need a lock cylinder. But I thought that the switch and lock cylinder were the same thing.. are the part numbers the same?

no, well I don't know that for sure, but the prices are different between the two.


-justin

to replace the lock cylinder/switch, whatever how hard will this be? do I have to drop the column and disassemble the damn thing, or what?

sorry, I'd love to help you more man, but I have never done it before so i'm going to let someone who knows the answer help you out. Sorry bud.

If I remember correctly from what someone else told me, you have to pull off the steering wheel and disasemble the column up to the point of where the ignition switch is. So basically you disassemble from the steering wheel on back. It'* a tough job because of all the tiny parts/springs in there. If you get a shop manual (I have a haynes manual) they tell you exactly how to do this. If you want, I can scan if for you and post it somewhere for you to look at..

aight here you go. When you go there, you might want to save those pictures to your harddrive. I have a low bandwidth limit on that site..
www.geocities.com/rivieraresource/page264.html

I have the same diagram/instructions in my service manual, but I need a steering wheel puller to get it off, to do further work.


-justin