I had to replace the steering lever lock in my vehicle, and to do so had do some disassembly to the tilt column. I managed to get it all back together except the shroud that has the key switch in it. there is a gear that the key switch goes into that meshes into a rack that moves the steering lever lock and slides the actuator rod to the ignition switch further down the column. I can not for the life of me get this gear to go into this rack properly so that when I put the cylinder back in the key ends up in the right position. the way it's ending up now is when I turn to the lock position, the clock and radio turn back on which will of course drain the battery. the key doesn't turn back any further like it normally should. I've searched the forum for previous posts and saw others had issues as well, but no solutions were ever posted. I'm pretty sure that those guys managed to get it fixed, if anybody could tell me how, I would forever be in there debt. this truck is my only vehicle and I need it for alot of things. I apologize for the lenghty post, I just want to make sure that I included every detail I could think of so I might get a solution sooner without having to waste time answer questions about what is happening. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Obviously you need to disengage the gear and move the rack one tooth up or down. I remember having this trouble also, but I forget how I exactly did it. If you could get the gear out of the rack, you could pull up or down on the rod near the cluster to move the rack, and then put the gear back in.

 

that's was I was figuring, however I don't have snap ring pliers to remove the ring that holds the gear in there. it came out without removing the gear, so logically it would have to go back in, at least in my minds eye it looks that way. I'll keep trying and if I get the darn thing back together right I will surely post. thanks franklin

 

ok, so I got the thing back together yesterday before work. it's not quite 100% the same though. seems that when i put it in allowing it to hit in all positions, it doesn't go far enough forward in start to engage the starter, so if I put it in one tooth forward so it does start, when I cut the engine off the clock and radio come on unles I pull the key out just a hair before the lock position. I'm certain I'll figure it out eventually, important thing to me is that it gets back and forth from work. I believe the switch down on the column can be adjusted, I'll just have to research and figure out how. By the way, thanks Franklin2 for the only response to this issue. when I first joined the forum, any post would receive numerous response all offering various suggestions for the OP to check out bettering the chances for a solution. I don't know if it's the nicer weather has brought folks out away from their computers or what, but I sure do miss the wealth of knowledge and ideas, even ones that didn't solve the issue simply because it made the forum feel more neighborly. anyway, I'll keep y'all updated if the old girl developes any more personality traits.