Jammed Ignition Key Tumbler.... Grrrrr!!!!

[Prospector]

1984 GMC pickup 1500...

I read everything I could find about it... There isn't a little tumbler release hole anywhere near the key tumbler in the column..?

I removed the steering wheel... I can't get past the wheel lock plate..? How is it removed?.. I want to defeat the wheel lock while I'm in there... Do you just grind off the pin?..

Does hammer and chisel ever work in repairing a column?..

When I tried to start the truck, something snapped near the tumbler, between the tumbler and the switch guess... Now the tumbler moves way too freely... I'm guessing that a metal strap connection to the starter slide-switch broke..
So I suppose I need to get at the starter slide-switch, and make it so I can move the switch like the key did to get this thing started and running ASAP...

So where do I drill to create a slot to the switch?.. I can't remove the steering lock plate..? Is my only option, to grind the covers off?..

Is there a simple quick way to cut up the wires, and splice them to a switch and starter button?.. Which wires?.. Where?..

Now I see why cruise control wasn't working.. the wires came off... So now really I need to get into the column...

Is there a way to dismantle the column without destroying it?..

[1985K10]

Buy a lockplate compressor tool, it will push the plate down so you can remove the clip that holds it on. Costs around $15, and worth every penny.

I've also removed the lockplate with screwdrivers and vise grips, but its a pain.

[edman87]

what he said! and to remove lock, remove the button or throw out the ring. button removal suggested.
sounds like female end of tumbler prolly gave way in your truck.
all can be done without a lock ring tool, but just spend the $10, you will need it again later if you like gm vehicles!

[piecesparts]

The GM column has a soft spot in it's ignition linkage. It is the "Potmetal" piece on the opposite side of the column from the ignition switch that changes the rotational movement of the switch to a linear movement for the ignition switch on the column base. This piece is behind the turn signal lever on the column and can only be accessed by taking the column top apart. It is not overly expensive, but it takes a person with a little bit of time to replace it. Be sure to lube the heck out of the parts for longevity.

When mine broke, I took the ignition switch off of the column and made the trip home by starting the truck with a screw driver. The ignition switch is about four inches long and is held onto the column with two small screws up under the dash. It is connected to the key with a rod that runs down the inside of the column cover.

[smashingchuck]

Originally Posted by piecesparts

The GM column has a soft spot in it's ignition linkage. It is the "Potmetal" piece on the opposite side of the column from the ignition switch that changes the rotational movement of the switch to a linear movement for the ignition switch on the column base. This piece is behind the turn signal lever on the column and can only be accessed by taking the column top apart. It is not overly expensive, but it takes a person with a little bit of time to replace it. Be sure to lube the heck out of the parts for longevity.

When mine broke, I took the ignition switch off of the column and made the trip home by starting the truck with a screw driver. The ignition switch is about four inches long and is held onto the column with two small screws up under the dash. It is connected to the key with a rod that runs down the inside of the column cover.

I had the same piece break on my suburban... I just swapped the column for a new one - much easier.

[piecesparts]

YEP a $125 to $250 dollars for a column or $10.00 for the little potmetal piece. Your choice.

[Prospector]

The 90 has a jammed tumbler, stuck in On...
That's pretty much straight forward.. I hope...

The 84 probably needs that link from the tumbler to the switch...
Sounds easy.. and a lot to do... It'll be an experience...

For now I'm using the vise grip suggestion to move the link rod to start...

Probably the worst part is removing and installing the clip holding down the steering lock plate... That part is under control...

Cruise control wires are all off the control arm... That's gonna be a *****, if there isn't any trace of the wire colors at the control arm connections...

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This whole thing has been a real Mess... First the tumbler in the 90PU jams...
Then this mess with the 84PU... And last night a couple 12-year olds opted to try to rob my old car, by ripping apart the column's plastic cover, and ripping the buzzer wires out of their socket, to try to hot-wire the car with buzzer wires... Obviously they didn't consider shifter and steering locks.. so even if they did manage to get it started, they couldn't/wouldn't even get it into gear... I'm seeing it was two kid's first attempt at car-theft.. and at-least 6-hours more "unnecessary" work for me.. driving that 40-mile round-trip, to the wreckers and back, finding and removing the parts and installing them.. and on top of it all, the 15-bucks gas, and 5-bucks for parts... As if I don't have lots to do with my time, and other place to spend my money...
Essentially it's costing me about about a hundred-bucks for a couple brat-kid's first car-theft lesson... And they're just 12 yet... They are the source of a little crime wave in this and the surrounding neighborhoods... So far, in this neighborhood, they've burned their own house half down, by playing with matches.. They burned a new luxury home to the ground, just framed... Now they hit my car... And that's only "a scratch on the surface"... Those kids are likely gonna spend at-least half their short lives in the monkey-cage... It's sad that humans gotta try to grow-up without any parental guidance what so ever.. just degrees of punishment by choosing the only ways they know.. All they've got is the extreme trial and error method to learn from... And all us around them gotta pay the price for their lessons and their petty rushes...

Next time I see them casing this neighborhood, my plan is to approach them, and give them a deep lecture about all the fun they's gonna have in jail.. with the big SOB native convicts, kissing them till they're lips are red and swollen.. and diddling their ports... A wicked graphic story, about how I've heard how much first-timers cry, and squirt-blood and such from their butts...

I'll start the lesson by building a fun-picture in their mental vision... and then evolve it in to the horror story after they indicate they are well into the story...
It seems that it's the only way to stop them from perpetually robbing this neighborhood...

Cops is not an option... They couldn't do anything, even if they did nab them in the act... I must appeal to their fears.. I'm bettin' it will make me even more a target for their vengeances, but it's the only way I can see, to push them over the edge, into making a serious mistake, from which they can't get out of, nor run from... I just gotta be "on my toes" for this one.. but I will succeed unscathed in ridding this neighborhood of its latest little crime-wave plague... I estimate they'll be back four to five days from now, to strike again, in the night, at about 10:PM... The IR cam will be up and on.. and I'll be ready... I've had enough of all these little thieves, forever trying to rob my tools, and wrecking my things... It's time to get my hans dirdy, and do some honest battle...

Dam!.. Another six-hours extra work I really didn't need, in areas I've never done before... Well.. at least I'm sure getting a crammed course in car ignition switches... "Zowie!"... and "thht"...
Sure is a screwed up world...

If I had the dollars.. I'd create a drop-in, relaxation center, combo drop-in school.. to teach kids what their parents didn't and can't...
All they need learn, is the tiny wee spark of respect for their 6-billion brothers and sisters... Big job.. huh..? Democracy is supposed top be doing this job.. It's what we pay them to to... These days, politicians just cleanup the messes after the fact... It's as if the government is so mindless that they really honestly don't have a clue what to do... Democracy isn't government.. it's just a massive cleaning utility, not worth what we pay them to do...
Now I've even got to be my own police service to deal-out a festering problem... and I even have-to be the bait... Sometimes I wonder, just what the H is it that democracy actually does for us..?

[ThatOneBlue67]

Man you are awesome. You better give them that speech. I'd cry til my eyes fall out.

[Prospector]

...Given that I'm their prime-target now... I've got to establish deep trance, to set my internal clock, to half an hour before they arrive in this neighborhood... so I'll be ready with the camera, and a piece of rope, and a flatblack four-foot/2-inch dia. hardwood club.. should they dare sport blades, to have entered my domain... at which time, shidzOn!", and all stops are pulled...
Better for them to listen to my story it be.. than to try to play "kill" with me...
So much for the "kiddieland stuff"...

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...I'm finishing up an everything fall-cleanup... where I tidy right to the fence corners.. and to every corner of every storage room.. and every inch of the yards, and walks... This is as clean as it would be if the king of realters would have it...
Now all I gotz to do is win the next lotto, to get met out of, and far away from, this part of hell on earth...

... I'm tidying the back corner of the fence, where I have a 20-foot triad fenced-in, holding all my metaly things.. "guy things"... and I'm a spreading 'em All over the yards... Tidying them up.. restoring.. tossing.. pondering... This ole trampoline, I scooped from the spring cleanup, drapes over the box with lots to spare...
Cut'er square, with lots of excess... Build 7 square-tube cross-member roof-supports...
Then drill-in a lot of boat-top snaps to the box... Fold and Pin the edges... Do up eight snaps... then test, and adjust it... Then sew the folded edges with 2-inch nylon strapping, six straight clean passes with ultra strong exterior quality black thread... sewing in a trampoline loop every couple inches.. so I'll still have a trampoline, should "trampoline" ever one day be part of what I need for something, somewhere, somehow, some hole in time... in my prospecting jaunts into heaven on earth's remaining pristine forests, where critters are honest and friendlier than god's children...

Then I've got me a have a super new toneau cover.. for free... Made of prime Kevlar yet... Its soft semigloss sheen, will definitely compliment the flat-black box...

At what speeds, height, and curvature, does a flexible box-cover start to flap?..

What is optimum format of the cross members..?

Is there a good sealant, for Kevlar, which remains flexible forever..?

I'm seeing that it needs be locked to the box somehow.. cuz there are apes out there in hell, who would snatch a nice cover in about as much time as it takes to blast out an epic fart...
I suppose six ultra strong rings through the material, along the reinforcement ribbon...

Or, a locking half-inch rod, threaded through the welded box-loops, and trampoline rings..?