After sweating in a hot parking lot for ten minutes before the ignition key would turn AT ALL, the car finally started. When I got through at the bank twenty minutes later, it was another ten minutes of jiggling the key, shift ****, steering wheel - - - all interspersed with all the Anglo Saxon at my disposal. The key finally turned, and I drove straight home, where I pulled up the PDF on the fix . . . and dug in. It took longer than some may have taken, but I did get that pin drilled out, the stupid spring hatch off, and the pin fell out . . . sans spring!?!?! Ah, well the assembly must have been put together either on a Monday morning or a Friday afternoon. So thanks, all who helped with photos and instructions. Really. Thanks a lot.

 

And thanks for reminding me I need to deal with this... before it deals with me.. LOL.

Amazing how one can procrastinate till it's mandatory .. Moves right up to the top of the todo list..

 

Thank you soo much for posting the DIY. Thanks Rekcah for pdf and pictures & I guess the original poster drhrsh.

Just wanted to answer few questions I had and had to read whole post for answers. Might save someone from reading the whole post

1- Can you repair the old assembly?
Ans: Yes. Remove the small steal cap thing and spring and pin will fall right out. I reused mine. Check the PDF on how to fix yours and save $202.

2- Does the steering wheel lock work after taking the pin and spring out from old assembly.
Ans: Yes.

3- What breaks by taking out the spring and pin.
Ans: Nothing at all. You just don't feel the tension turning the key from position 0 to 1. It just turns smoothly.

4- Is there different size & types of screws. Do I need to track where I am taking the screws out from?
Ans: All screws (Philips) are identical size so you don't have to worry about where each one go. There's only two different screws which are 10mm under the wheel holding the lower trim these are longer in size so you cant miss them. That you have to make sure goes where you took them out from as they wont fit anywhere else.

I had hard time finding the pin.. that's why I took pictures and posting it here. Other thing was the black cylinder which was too tight and had to use a tool. Putting the black cylinder back was kind of hard as well. There's push pins on bottom left if you push it with one tumb and push the black cylinder with other it pops in. (atleast it did for mine) and then turn clockwise as per PDF.. Be patience and read the step couple of time if you get stuck.

Here's the picture of pin location it is located under the trim which can be pulled back with finger. I took picture of this step. I didn't know about the trim being retractable. Once you do that you have to align yourself properly to see the pin.
vqXKWTy.jpg
bpiWTGl.jpg
lyCgrTj.jpg
wJWaFpg.jpg

Took me about an hour to the repair. My car started locking up on me and had to keep trying to turn the keys until it finally worked usually 20mins to 40mins of trying.

If you are having the problem I would say do it before its too late and locks up on you.

Good luck Thank you again.

P.S: feel free to use the picture or content as you please.

 

Went to the web site today, this is what poped up This page can't be displayed Went to site today Monday the 1st of July, it worked so filed a complaint

 

Go to POST 189 ,7/7/2010, page19. Look for a Box that says PDF attachment. Click on the pdf and save it on your computer ( print it too) should reveal all. You can thank the lady that put it all together as well as 180.

 

how do I get to that post? Never done that going back to old post.

 

look at the page # at the top or the bottom of this page. Currently page 29 of 29 pages. You can move to the " first" page or "19,27,28" by clicking on the #. Click on page 19 and go thru the page and you will see a post by rekcah and you can click on his link (it's not Rebecca) everything will be there to get you fixed up.

 

don't ask me how but i fixed it. I just did what drhrsh said to do in his pdf below and it worked. I had the stuck key not the sticky key.
(https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...key-fix_v2.pdf)

i think, got to test it for a week or so. i drilled the pin, rotated the key housing, removed it from the car. then open the little hatch in the shaft going toward the steering wheel. a spring and a,I think locking device that unlocks the wheel when the key is turned,. that did it everything works now with the key. I will not reinstall that part, yes the steering lockes when I turn off the key. I was reading the sticky key post and ,it never said that this fixed everything and you don't need a new tumbler.. I am not replacing a thing just removing the drilled out pin which lets the housing rotate so it can come off the steering column and the other pin and spring ,below the little 1/4x 1/2 silver hatch, now it works
thanks jim

 

Thanks for the lesson. Now know how to search for stuff
TOM

 

The PDF file was done by Rekah not drhrsh. The PDF was based on the words and music by drhrsh but expanded to cover the reuse of the original part and the jammed key.

drhrsh sold his car a few months later and took down the photos he had posted, I believe Rekah had saved them.
All thanks should go to Rekah.

 

well then double thanks to Rekah.

 

This whole thread gets confusing but here is a summary.
1 - Dr Harsh replaced the steering lock assy - he did not know about the spring and pin which when removed fixed the issue. (that's why you had the wrong info AMX1397)
2 - At that time the cheap fix was to cut off the part of the steering lock that goes into the steering wheel - not necessary- this worked but also stopped the steering wheel from locking.
3- Boero Boy was the first to drill out the steering column pin, remove the assy. and then open the hatch and remove the spring and pin and replace the hatch cover - fixed the problem no charge.
4 -I was the first that did not drill out the pin, did not cut anything, did not replace any parts but did open the hatch and remove the spring and pin and replace the hatch cover as Boero Boy suggested. That was 5 years ago and still no problem.
5 - Dr Harsh had pictures which helped me BUT he took them with him when he left the forum but he did NOT have the solution only the instructions on replacing the assembly.
6-The real person who is the saviour is actually Rekcah. He had already fixed his and took it apart again just to help everyone else by taking step by step pictures. He is the one that made the two files for fixing while locked up and not locked up. You should only follow His instructions and He should get the credit.

Rekcah has put the repair PDF file in post #1 - PDF Sticky Ignition Key Fix_v2.pdf use this and you will not have problems.

 

thanks to all who had a hand in putting this post together as for Rekcak, really thanksto you,,, as the pdf and footnotes got me through this stuck key,,,, I was going to run a few weeks with my dash torn apart as a test to make sure it worked, but now see it is not needed as it works. thanks to everyone and for the next person that has a stuck(sticky) key do this early so you don't have any drilling to do just remove it ,remove the hatch ,remove the spring and the other slide pin that the spring pushes and put it back to together jim

 

Correction to a correction, Rekah could not put his PDF in the first post, I am assuming a mod, probably Valk did.


All thanks go to Rekah, RR, drhrsh et al.

Correction to a correction of a correction, Valk put the PDF in the first post. It says so.

 

Once the ignition housing is out, if you put the key in, should it turn? I have removed the cover and the spring and clip popped off. I do not want to install the housing and have the key still not turn.

 

it should turn and work with the locking steering wheel as it did before.

 

My Question is how do u get rid of the PIN. Yesterday for about 4 hours i tried to drill in the pin with a 1/4" drill bit and i cannot get through it.I dismantle the bottom paNeL. I cannot get to position 1 like the PDF instructions said. Its all over the site on how u can do it yourself its called sticky fix easy i believe or something like that. I a m stuck on this part and its very frustrating. Good thing it happen in my house !

IF ANYONE IS IN LOS ANGELES CA that can fix it . Im willing to pay
I CANNOT TAKE IT TO THE DEALER OR TO ANY SHOP IT WONT START
Mechanics are trying to charge me and arm and a leg to come to my house !
PLEASE ANYONE HELP!!!

 

You do not have to drill through it, you just have to take enough off the top to allow you to twist the whole assembly out. Drill did not work well for me, I used a dremel and a jewelers bit to grind it down slowly. The thing you have to watch when drilling is that the pin is staying still. A lot of times it will just spin with the bit and you get nowhere. You may have to use a screwdriver etc to hold the pin steady while you drill, it sucks but can be done.

 

Think another member had mentioned a titanium bit made short work of the task.. Good luck.. my day is coming soon ..

 

ok you have the pin almost drilled out it needs to be below that metal housing,(the black one where the pin sits in the U,,,, you need to push the pin in and rotate the key housing KEY TOWARDS THE FLOOR, and pull the housing towards the middle of the car, if you do not have the pin short enough then with a flat screwdriver pry out the bottom of that black housing,,just a little enough for the pin to go under it ,,then the key housing will come out ,,the elect is disconnected correct? when every thing is done you can put the key housing back in and push it in too far so you can correct the black metal tab you bent early then put the housing in the correct place and your done well put every thing back together, don't forget to remove the other pin with spring, so you never have this problem again. jim