1999 Ford F250

After reading the Owner's Manual about Brake-Shift Interlock...

I think I have a bigger problem. I was parking the truck, shifted to Park, turned off the Ignition and felt a "weird" click. Everything shut down. The Ignition is locked, so that the key can not move it. The Steering is locked in a turned-to-right position and the brake feels like it is engaged (stuck) giving no resistance until half way depressed.

Without forcing anything, I tried to engage and disengage the Parking Brake, insert the key (as the manual suggests) and nada.

I called AAA - but they suggested I hold off until the morning when I can have it towed, if necessary.

Any ideas?

Even if only where to tow it in the Bergen County, Teaneck area?

Thanx!

g

 

The ignition key isn't locked. You're experiencing column bind.

Stick the key back in, and turn the steering wheel "just a little" to the left or the right, possibly wiggling it, then turn the key.

My crewcab did that all the time until I replaced the steering column (the problem was easily fixed, but I replaced it because I wanted to add tilt-wheel to the truck).

 

Thanx,

I'll go downstairs and give that a try...

Let you know if it works.

g

 

Nope.

I tried to wiggle it a bit to the left and a bit to the right... with the key in the ignition... nada. There is a little play in the wheel, but it's not enuff to free anything up. Beast12 suggested "some force" and I tried to pull the wheel back to the center (from the not to extreme right turn wheel placement) but I'm thinking more force is stepping out of the cab, anchoring on the floor board and pulling... I need a check if that's inappropriate "force"

g

 

btw - I already have "tilt-wheel" steering... but that's locked up too.

Sigh

g

 

Well, here's how the morning went. I gave it one more try, but no go. So I got on the phone with the AAA and they told me it would be two hours before a Tow Truck would be able to get to me. Then the Ford Dealership in Hackensack said they wouldn't be able to look at the vehicle 'til Monday. I was so frustrated - so filled with testoserone - that I went back and gave the wheel one more good tug, getting in touch with my inner masculinity, anchoring myself against the driver's door. It worked! I heard another click, the key turned and I was back in business.

Why was it so tuff? Because the wheel was already wedged against the curb, so I had to, in effect, turn the wheel into the curb... more.

Live and learn.

g

 

Pull into a spot or into your driveway with the steering wheel straight, put it in park and take out the key. You should be able to wiggle the steering wheel a little bit, and if you rotate it a bit in either direction, you'll hear a distinct "click" and not be able to move it anymore. That's the column lock doing it's job.

The "bind" I refered to earlier is when the suspension/steering system is applying enough pressure to push the column against one of the column locks you just found by doing the first paragraph. Because the pressure is so great, there is a ton of friction between the column shaft and the lock, thus making it very difficult to "yank" apart. Of course you can't rotate the ignition cylinder either, because the locks press on the back of the ignition cylinder as well, for anti-theft reasons.

BTW, this gets worse as the column ages. It's caused mostly by the lock surfaces wearing over time, in miniscule amounts. Personally, I'd just ignore it until it's very annoying and inconvienent, then repair or replace the column, depending on your tool supply and your mood.

While I prefer Ford columns to Dodge and Chevy columns, as they are better built and much tigher generally... but when they bind they are... well... as you found out... annoying

 

i have found over the years that 1 well placed stick of dynamite works very well to alleviate this binding.

 

ok mr teaneck.i'm from waywood and now up in vernon. stay away from hackensack ford.
if you like your truck. park ave ford , ridge wood ford and pistely on rt 17 south in paramus are the better ones.
the guys are right that click was the colum lock setting and with the truck against the curb you could not pull hard enough to release the pin.

 

heh-heh.

By the time I got around to replacing the column, I had deliberately broken the column locks as well as de-pinned the ignition lock. I had problems with both for a long time and kept putting off fixing it because I was going to replace the column "any day now" as the replacement column was sitting in the garage on my bench for something like a year.

Unfortunately my "to do" list, combined with my "honeydo" list, could pave a 8 lane highway from where I am in NJ, to the coast of secaucus, across the atlantic and up and around all the way to London England.

 

sounds like i'm not alone with a honey do list that long. but it will be spring time before i start that list after all this surgery i have been though/going though. maybe it will be next year.
my biggest item is a jetson lawn and i just may have a keg party for that one to get done. i'll get a guy to turn and rake the soil with a machine and then a trailer load of sod. and a party that ='s a jetson lawn. dirt one min. a lawn the next.

 

shoot. i got a better lawn idea than that one chas. i'm gonna pave it and paint it green.

 

This past summer I was supposed to turn over the entire lawn - front, back and sides since it's so compacted and the grass seems to grow on top of the soil rather than in it.

I got as far as pondering where the phone book is to look up garden tool rental places. I didn't get further than the pondering part.

That reminds me, since spring is coming (or here?) I need to combine several mowers to get one that works properly. Wonder what shrub I shoved them all under?

 

try and tell that to my other half. dogs will only tear the jetson up also.
fred had the same thing last year.just went a got a new one. now it's close to putting the snow blower away and finding the new lawn mower

 

I don't tell my other half much. Then I only get yelled at for not doing it. Whereas the other way, I get yelled at twice.

Want one? One needs a carb (which I have), one starts then dies (probably carb adjustment or a plug), one needs a blade which I made for it by cutting down a larger blade and sharpening it...

And the trailer mower needs a tow hook. LMAO