5kcstq Ignition Switch Closure (for now)

[MSV96@aol.com]

Thanks to all who offered help on my ignition switch failure, especially 
Wallace White and Peter of Audionly whose advice was extremely helpful.

In my case it looks like it was the switch at fault, not the twisted lock 
linkage shaft I had feared. That was the good news.

The bad news was what I ran into thanks to the workmanship done for the PO by 
an "auto electrical" place in San Jose, CA. Butchered. The set-screw for the 
switch was stripped and would not move up at all. The shear bolt for the lock 
assembly was sheared (big surprise) but still holding the lock assy. to the 
steering column so I wanted to leave that alone. Since I had new switch in 
hand I went ahead and started to break the old switch out. That went okay 
until I realized there is a slotted recess the portion of the switch goes 
into where it is pinned by the set-screw. That left the only option which was 
to drill out the set screw (from an angle working through the instrument 
cluster hole). Once that was out of the way, a sheet-metal screw worked as a 
set-screw for the new switch. Looks real ugly when you remove the instrument 
cluster and look down...but the switch will be real easy to change next time 
;-)

I now wonder if this job even was done at all for the previous owner, or did 
the place give up and squirt some contact cleaner in, charge 300 bux, and 
call it a day. (I have the receipt in my records, the job was done ~23k miles 
ago in July '97.)

Hope this helps someone the next time...had it not been for the screw this 
job would have been easy.

Mike Veglia
87 5kcstq