Josh,

Can't really see with the pics but have you tried pb blaster or heating the outside of the metal base to expand it?

 

And before some smart-ass asks...NO, it is not Rhino-lined in there.

:finger

 

There are 2 little screws.

 

removal diagram only shows one. Any chance you could tell me where the elusive #2 is?

------ Follow up post added July 27th, 2010 12:31 PM ------

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Same horizontal just on the other side (just to make it that much more difficult)?

 

Yup, 180 from the one you can see.
I never try to do those in the car. I drill the safety bolts and remove the entire column lock assmebly. In the long run it takes way less time than dicking around in the tight space behind the dash.

Don't let the little silver key-way thingy on the end of the ignition lock fall down in the dash, and don't forget to put it back in (it goes in the place where you are using the screwdriver now).

 

Thanks again, Mike.

Yeah, this would have been much simpler had I just been able to get the shear bolts around the steering column out with a punch or stud extractor (or drilled them out) and worked on this out in the open. Hopefully I won't have to be back in here any time soon.

Do you always replace them with shear bolts again for anti-theft? Everything in there is built for anti-theft, but it's pretty funny how easy it was to get the truck going with a phillips head and a flat head screw driver.

 

I can't do it on customer cars, but if you want a "short-cut" use a cut off wheel and cut slots in the safety bolt heads. then you can use a screwdriver to remove them, and put them back.

On customer cars we do use the correct safety bolts.

 

If you can't get power to the truck to use a dremel a small hacksaw could probably be used to slot the head.

 

x2 dremel or hacksaw the heads of the shear bolts, makes it SO easy. I actually changed the ignition in mine using a power converter and dremel on the side of the road one day.

 

yay- I finally got to try my hand at this job.
I did the Dremel method...cut some slots in the heads of the shear bolts to fit a flat screwdriver.
The hacksaw method renders the bolts unusable.


.

 

Says the dentist...

I did the Dremel method...


.

 

Go push-button start and never look back!

 

hey now-- I thought about that, too

link that write-up here again


.

 

My truck came to me with a jumper wire to a momentary SPST toggle mounted to the dash frame. You could start the truck without a key, but you couldn't steer it ...:facepalm::question:question

Now I'm wiring in the V8 trying to decide what to do for IGN/RUN / ACCY / STRT circuits off of the current setup, or replacing the whole thing with the $300+ v8 unit. I may use the current ignition just as a steering lock and power lockout, then run a push-to-start relay bank off of the back of a MUD console or something...