kawi825

I bought a straight blade 1/4" drill tip and used it in a small 1/4" drive socket for mine, worked great

Calgary Ole

I ended up removing the pod as the ignition switch had a black plastic cover that was attached with one long screw that I just could not remove with the pod in place. Must of been something new for MY 90. I will post a picture when I download it later.
Thanks for all the responses!

Calgary Ole

New switch feels tight and recoils when starting. I used to have to turn it back slightly to have the stereo and gauges to work properly. Volt meter is now working!

kvn_mcfadden1

Hi All

New here and musy say the amount of advice is overwhelming! My problem is a little different...
84S 5sp US model. While in storage, the little ring that holds the ignition switch disappeared mysteriously and the result is that if I'm not careful, the whole tumbler comes out with the key. This happened the other day.
I've owned the car for a couple of years and had the ignition lock, 1 door lock and the hatch lock replaced at different times, leading to a number of keys needed to operate the car. So, after the tumbler came out, I left it and the keys in the garage, locked in the garage overnight to deal with it in the morning.
Come out in the morning, the keys are gone, but nothing else! Looked every where, no luck. A few days go by and I've decided "screw it", time to replace them all and get back to 1 key to rule them all. I found a nice 85 locally, got a good price on the set, found all the posts on replacing this or that, but still baffled by the ignition switch. Seems like the tumbler should not be coming out? If I get the tumbler out of the new lock, can I just slide it in to replace the old one? Then, how do I keep the whole thing from happening again?
Always an adventure...

Landseer

What are you terming the "whole tumbler"?

A smooth aluminum cylinder, or, the core of it -- such that the actual individual tumblers are visible?

Pic woudl help.

kvn_mcfadden1

All

Thanks! Things got a little more complicated on the way to the park. I got5 a complete set of locks with key from a wrecker. The old cylinder was replaced some time ago and whoever did that didn't put the pin back, so the cylinder came out easily. I can slide the new one into place. Ity's about 4mm shorter overall than the original but that seemed not to be an issue. The problem is it won't turn when it's in place. It does turn nicely when out and in hand, but won't in the car. I have tried wiggling the steering wheel to take the load off the locking pin, but that is no help at all. Acts like it's the wrong key. The whole reason for this adventure was I lost the collection of keys that used to run the car - thus the desire to get back to one key to rule them all.
Hatch works. doors work (somewhat of a pain to swap), igniton doesn't.

Any ideas?

jpitman2

With the ign tumbler bare in your hand, insert the key, if any of the brass blades are sticking out of the sides of the tumbler, its the wrong key. If that key works in all the other locks, then rematch it to the ign tumbler - note which blades stick out, remove them (without losing the springs under them!), try swapping around and inserting the key to see if you can reduce the no that stick out and/or the amount they stick out. When you have the least no sticking out the least amount, file off the proud bits, and it should work in the lock. This is how I rekeyed my gas cap lock.
jp 83 Euro S AT 56k

Mrmerlin

You can swap some the tumblers around if they stick out of the barrel a lot,
Or get a small file,
and file down the tumblers that stick out of the barrel if they stick out 1MM or less .
NOTE if you dont want to do a lot of filing,
simply remove some of the tumblers that stick out as well as the small springs.

Install the barrel without all of the tumblers,
you will be the only one that knows some of them are missing,
otherwise the barrel should work .

NOTE wash the barrel down and dry fit it to the housing,
make sure the tumblers are smooth to the barrel.