My keys got stolen from my ignition (battery had died because key was left in ACC and I assume the attempted car jack ended in a key theft for some reason.)

The Ranger is 96, tilt steering with plastic shrouding and column shift A/T
I followed the procedure recommended for exchanging the cylinder without the keys:
-drilled retaining pin
-drilled key slot
-manually removed parts with needle nose
-cleaned, greased and went to reinstall.....

I discovered the small metal washer between the green plastic washer and the gear was broken in half because I nicked it with the end of the drill bit. I inspected this and from what I can tell it looks like the green plastic washer is designed to hold onto the metal washer, the two of them together, from what I gather are designed to keep the gear from moving sideways or tilting. I figured that the washer should do it's job even in two pieces if I could get it in there straight and get the green washer to grab it.

Anyway I stuck it all back in there, slid the new lock cylinder in in run position, and nothing good happened. It's in the whole way, I can see the retaining pin centered in the whole from underneath, but when I try to seat the retaining pin it won't budge. I tried to align the parts at a million different angles and I just have no luck. I am planning on replacing the little metal washer, but I don't feel like it being broken alone is enough to keep all parts from functioning properly. I am stumped because I did the procedure step for step and there is nothing else apparently broken or damaged. The only other factor is that the steering wheel is locked and that sometimes made the other cylinder hard to turn, but it freed up usually with a little wiggling, this cylinder won't budge.

Any suggestions will be appreciated, I am stumped

 

If your steering wheel is still locked, then the mechanism is not being operated by the lock cylinder/key combination. From memory, there is a squarish block of metal at the end of the lock cylinder that goes into a matching hole in the mechanism mounted on the steering column. This block rotates if the key is inserted and then turned. The block must match or mate with the hole in the mechanism.
I would remove the lock cylinder, using a paper clip or whatever to depress the pin as I rotated it backwards {top towards me} past the normal 'detent'. Pull out the cylinder and check the 'permanent' mechanism. You should be able to rotate the gizzards using a tool of some kind {large flat-blade screwdriver?} to unlock the steering wheel, and move the ignition switch to the various positions. If the mechanism doesn't do that, post some pictures as I cannot imagine more details than I have recalled.
tom