New Guy needing some info

[Mike Nixon]

On a Tailgate crank assembly.

I recently bought another Blazer [Yeah I own a few] This is an 88 V5 that came out of the Air force Motor pool. The Tailgate crank was MIA when I bought it and I'm tired of running it up and down with pliers. I pulled the Crank off of a 75 project truck's old gate and am planning to install it on the 88, per the parts manual it's the same unit froom 73-91,. Problem is it's in the freewheel position and the key is nowhere to be found.

I know that new cranks and cyls are available. i'm not wanting to spend the 90.00 on a cyl. The 30.00 for a crank isn't bad but I have this on in hand.

My question is, How does one remove the lock cyl from the crank asm on these. I've rekeyed plenty of locks over the years, [did my time as a GM tech, service mgr, parts guy] but I can't remember how to remove this as most I've owned have been power and ALL we sold were. I'm pretty sure I can pick the tumblers when I find my pick set [ another story] or pull the drivers door cyl and get the key number and cut a key. As late as it's getting in the year I'm putting this one together on a budget and will convert to power when I put a gate and 1/4's on it.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Mike