I need some advice. Last night my truck wouldn't start. The key felt really loose in the ignition switch. So I started tearing the steering column apart and replaced the ignition switch. The guy at the parts store said its probably the switch behind the key portion. I'm stuck as to how to dissssemble the portion of the steering column that has the turn signal switches and ignition switch. The locking steering wheel bar sems to prevent it from coming apart. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated. I worked on it for over 3 hours last night and its stuck in a Walmart parking lot. 88 F150 XLT. My Haynes and Chilton books don't seem to cover my particular model. HELP

 

Hello, not sure what you mean by locking steering wheel bar? There are 3 switches by the way as you probably know. The electrical part which is down below and the mechanical part which is what the key goes into. Which one do you want to change? You will need a special tool to get the column lock ring out unless you have really strong thumbs. Let us know what you want to do.

 

The best thing for you to do is to take it and jumpstart it... This means just grabbing the rod and manually pushing the ignition switch on the column down. Drive it home.

As for taking it apart, I wimped out when mine broke. I replaced the switch and the cylinder, but once you get to pulling off the wheel i'm out of there. I had a local shop fix it and it ended up costing me $152. I had a little L shaped piece, where the long part of the L has a curve in it, break off somewhere deep in the column (tilt column with cruise control, lots of stuff goin on in there). $2 part. Oh well.


-=Whittey=-

 

Thanks Whittey, I've learned alot since my 1st message (I was off yesterday and couldn't provide an update.) I ended up replacing the ignition key switch and the ignition electrical switch, all to no avail. I did as you said, just moved the electrical switch and got it started. A freind that runs a VO TECH Dept said its probably the gear that moves the rod, its gotten sloppy loose and won't push it far enough to engage the start mode. I'm going tomorrow to his shop to fix (he's done it before). I had the wrong idea on the push rod. On a another car I worked, the rod actuated the steering wheeel lock and the ignition electrical part was all at the top of the column. That threw me off and had me looking for the ignition switch in the wrong place. I thank you for your reply and as always, your professional and technically accurate advice. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll unsolve the mysteries of the steering wheel column. Thanks again.

 

Didn't mean to forget, thanks TOPO.