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Hi
Having had the usual problem, i.e. key won't turn in the ignition barrel or, if it does after a ton of in-out-in-out wiggle it about, I was reduced to leaving the key in all the time, covering it with a wash leather hung over the steering column. I used the other key to lock and unlock the car.
So, having read all the relevant threads, and also having removed ignition barrels in the past, I went for it with confidence.
Hmm!
Twas not as I expected!
Three crossheaded screws to get the bottom half of the steering column cowl was fine, with a magnet to get hold of the screws. Unclip the top from the bottom and at some point lower the fuse box cover by turning the two screws 90 degrees, no problem.
So far so good.
So, the security bolts. Hammer and screwdriver with an already bugred tip, knocked them round, no sweat, so off it came.
The three plugs all undid no problem either.
Took it in the house, unscrewed the two screws holding the electrical connection to the end of the assembly and removed it. Cut the cable tie holding the plug for the light that illuminates the thing around the keyhole. This gives access to the pin that hold the central part of the barrel into the outer bit. Excuse all the technical terms! I also needed to figure out how to get the plastic bit housing the circuitboard and the immobiliser coil off. In the end I pried up each clip but in fact all you need to do is rotate it a bit then pull.
I got organised and started trying to get the famous pin out of the side. Used my left hand drill bits, which normally do anything. But this time not as easy as it looked. Then, the blessed thing started turning in its hole. So drilling in a normal fashion was a waste of time. So I drilled at an angle and eventually was able to lever it out, with the far end still being viable, so set it aside for later.
At this point I expected to simply put the key in and pull the barrel out.
Wrong!
Although none of the other threads mentioned this, it is not possible for the simple reason that the barrel comes out of the opposite end to where one inserts the key. Which is a shame as that is the best way of keeping all the wafers or tumblers etc in place.
Here is where someone other than me would have found a bit of wire and threaded it through the hole from either end to hold everything in place, but that isn't macho is it? No! So I simply pulled the barrel gently out of its outer while trying to hold onto all the wafers at once. This worked but the ball bearing, despite my trying to ensure this didn't happen, fell out and rolled across the worktop!
So I thought, "Where has the spring gone?" as others have done.
So I packed up for the day and left it.
The following day I forensically searched the entire room for the spring. Did not find it. So, guess what folks? I am pretty sure there never was one.
So lesson learned, when taking the central barrel out, a/ use a piece of thin wire to keep the wafers more or less in place. Also, and if you can't be fu cked to do it the non-macho way, b/ do it over a towel or other absobent cloth so the ball, if you do not catch it, cannot roll too far.
The other point is that the tiny, tiny springs in the barrel are not very powerful, so if you turn the barrel so that the wafers are horizontal, as you take the barrel out, the wafers will come out a bit but they won't go too far and are very unlikely to go too far out and fall.
Thirdly (is it?) if you lose a wafer, do not have a heart attack about it. All you need to do is to take out the other wafer that slides next to it in the same section. and ensure both springs have gone too. If you leave the other one in it risks turning slightly sideways and causing jams etc. Then you'd be back to square one! The key will still work with a pair or even more wafers missing. (There is at least one wafer that sits on its own.)
Right, once you have got the barrel out and can insert the key, do so. You will find that some of the wafers don't move much and others do. The ones that don't move are not really a problem but it you want to extract them, use tape to hold the others in place. I used masking tape, tiny strips of. Then you may well find you need needle nose pliers and all sorts of other tools to gently extract the wafers as they are jammed in quite hard! Once out, rub them on a file to clean up the sides. Make sure you don't lose the tiny springs. You can then put them back in. They often won't seem to go in easily but once right in they move more easily. Tape them over and move on to the next if you need to. Remember, if you lose a pair it won't stop the key turning.
So now, with the key in, and pushed in as far as it will go, look at the wafers, both sides. you will probably see that, due to the key having got worn, some of the wafers have not descended right into the barrel to allow the barrel to turn easily in its housing. The normal advice here is to take a file or a grinder to the wafers in the barrel and grind them down until they are flush. But in fact, due to you having the correct key, albeit worn, you do not need to work too dramatically. All you need to do is to file the leading edge of the offending wafer(s) until they are down to the level of the barrel, at an angle. So that once the key turns the barrel in the housing, the wafer slides into place. We are only ever talking 10ths if not 100ths of a mm here.
When you come to replace the barrel in its housing you will find it a bit fiddly as the wafers will tend to stand up under spring power so you need to use all your fingers and little tools to push the wafers down into their slots. The ball bearing just sits in its hole.
The detents that hold the key in its various positions are in the switch part that contains all the electrical contacts, held in place with the two screws. To prove this to yourself, stick an appropriate screwdriver blade into the slot and turn it, you will feel it lock gently into each position. This is how you could drive the car if you had to, once you had got the immobiliser sorted out!
One other thing you will find is that when you want to put the barrel and it's housing into the outer housing you have have to mate the end of the barrel with the square hole that is connected to the spigot that goes into the electrical switchpart. But a spring to do with the steering column lock, keeps this square hole off to one side. The solution is to put the tip of a finger on the spigot and push hard, this for some reason centralises the whole thing with the square hole so that the square end of the barrel fits into it neatly.
Once in you have the problem of what to do about the pin, which keep the barrel in. In my case, having salvaged enough of it to work, I used a cable tie to hold one side of the top end of the pin in and then replaced the electrical plug in its normal place which requires another cable tie and holds the rest of the top of the pin in. If you have totally destroyed the pin you might want to find a 3.5mm drill bit end or summat similar to go in the hole, and lock the barrel into place. Some ingenuity may be required.
Beyond that reassembly is the reverse of dismantling, as usual. I would not lubricate anything as that is more likely to jam stuff up once the grease or whatever picks up gunk.
Sorry there are no pics. I was in two minds as to wheter to bother writing all this up, so never took any, and it is now all in the car and working fine. then i decided, "well, it caught me out and slowed me down, so why not?"
As for the ball bearing, I am not sure what purpose it serves, but I am aware that there is something in the lock mechanism that picks up the presence of the key, and when you insert this latter in the lok you push this ball bearing to one side as it enters. Secondly, I noted that the barrel will not turn until the key is pushed right into the barrel and then a bit further. So it may be something to do with this. I do not really know.
Hope this is of use to someone!
Having had the usual problem, i.e. key won't turn in the ignition barrel or, if it does after a ton of in-out-in-out wiggle it about, I was reduced to leaving the key in all the time, covering it with a wash leather hung over the steering column. I used the other key to lock and unlock the car.
So, having read all the relevant threads, and also having removed ignition barrels in the past, I went for it with confidence.
Hmm!
Twas not as I expected!
Three crossheaded screws to get the bottom half of the steering column cowl was fine, with a magnet to get hold of the screws. Unclip the top from the bottom and at some point lower the fuse box cover by turning the two screws 90 degrees, no problem.
So far so good.
So, the security bolts. Hammer and screwdriver with an already bugred tip, knocked them round, no sweat, so off it came.
The three plugs all undid no problem either.
Took it in the house, unscrewed the two screws holding the electrical connection to the end of the assembly and removed it. Cut the cable tie holding the plug for the light that illuminates the thing around the keyhole. This gives access to the pin that hold the central part of the barrel into the outer bit. Excuse all the technical terms! I also needed to figure out how to get the plastic bit housing the circuitboard and the immobiliser coil off. In the end I pried up each clip but in fact all you need to do is rotate it a bit then pull.
I got organised and started trying to get the famous pin out of the side. Used my left hand drill bits, which normally do anything. But this time not as easy as it looked. Then, the blessed thing started turning in its hole. So drilling in a normal fashion was a waste of time. So I drilled at an angle and eventually was able to lever it out, with the far end still being viable, so set it aside for later.
At this point I expected to simply put the key in and pull the barrel out.
Wrong!
Although none of the other threads mentioned this, it is not possible for the simple reason that the barrel comes out of the opposite end to where one inserts the key. Which is a shame as that is the best way of keeping all the wafers or tumblers etc in place.
Here is where someone other than me would have found a bit of wire and threaded it through the hole from either end to hold everything in place, but that isn't macho is it? No! So I simply pulled the barrel gently out of its outer while trying to hold onto all the wafers at once. This worked but the ball bearing, despite my trying to ensure this didn't happen, fell out and rolled across the worktop!
So I thought, "Where has the spring gone?" as others have done.
So I packed up for the day and left it.
The following day I forensically searched the entire room for the spring. Did not find it. So, guess what folks? I am pretty sure there never was one.
So lesson learned, when taking the central barrel out, a/ use a piece of thin wire to keep the wafers more or less in place. Also, and if you can't be fu cked to do it the non-macho way, b/ do it over a towel or other absobent cloth so the ball, if you do not catch it, cannot roll too far.
The other point is that the tiny, tiny springs in the barrel are not very powerful, so if you turn the barrel so that the wafers are horizontal, as you take the barrel out, the wafers will come out a bit but they won't go too far and are very unlikely to go too far out and fall.
Thirdly (is it?) if you lose a wafer, do not have a heart attack about it. All you need to do is to take out the other wafer that slides next to it in the same section. and ensure both springs have gone too. If you leave the other one in it risks turning slightly sideways and causing jams etc. Then you'd be back to square one! The key will still work with a pair or even more wafers missing. (There is at least one wafer that sits on its own.)
Right, once you have got the barrel out and can insert the key, do so. You will find that some of the wafers don't move much and others do. The ones that don't move are not really a problem but it you want to extract them, use tape to hold the others in place. I used masking tape, tiny strips of. Then you may well find you need needle nose pliers and all sorts of other tools to gently extract the wafers as they are jammed in quite hard! Once out, rub them on a file to clean up the sides. Make sure you don't lose the tiny springs. You can then put them back in. They often won't seem to go in easily but once right in they move more easily. Tape them over and move on to the next if you need to. Remember, if you lose a pair it won't stop the key turning.
So now, with the key in, and pushed in as far as it will go, look at the wafers, both sides. you will probably see that, due to the key having got worn, some of the wafers have not descended right into the barrel to allow the barrel to turn easily in its housing. The normal advice here is to take a file or a grinder to the wafers in the barrel and grind them down until they are flush. But in fact, due to you having the correct key, albeit worn, you do not need to work too dramatically. All you need to do is to file the leading edge of the offending wafer(s) until they are down to the level of the barrel, at an angle. So that once the key turns the barrel in the housing, the wafer slides into place. We are only ever talking 10ths if not 100ths of a mm here.
When you come to replace the barrel in its housing you will find it a bit fiddly as the wafers will tend to stand up under spring power so you need to use all your fingers and little tools to push the wafers down into their slots. The ball bearing just sits in its hole.
The detents that hold the key in its various positions are in the switch part that contains all the electrical contacts, held in place with the two screws. To prove this to yourself, stick an appropriate screwdriver blade into the slot and turn it, you will feel it lock gently into each position. This is how you could drive the car if you had to, once you had got the immobiliser sorted out!
One other thing you will find is that when you want to put the barrel and it's housing into the outer housing you have have to mate the end of the barrel with the square hole that is connected to the spigot that goes into the electrical switchpart. But a spring to do with the steering column lock, keeps this square hole off to one side. The solution is to put the tip of a finger on the spigot and push hard, this for some reason centralises the whole thing with the square hole so that the square end of the barrel fits into it neatly.
Once in you have the problem of what to do about the pin, which keep the barrel in. In my case, having salvaged enough of it to work, I used a cable tie to hold one side of the top end of the pin in and then replaced the electrical plug in its normal place which requires another cable tie and holds the rest of the top of the pin in. If you have totally destroyed the pin you might want to find a 3.5mm drill bit end or summat similar to go in the hole, and lock the barrel into place. Some ingenuity may be required.
Beyond that reassembly is the reverse of dismantling, as usual. I would not lubricate anything as that is more likely to jam stuff up once the grease or whatever picks up gunk.
Sorry there are no pics. I was in two minds as to wheter to bother writing all this up, so never took any, and it is now all in the car and working fine. then i decided, "well, it caught me out and slowed me down, so why not?"
As for the ball bearing, I am not sure what purpose it serves, but I am aware that there is something in the lock mechanism that picks up the presence of the key, and when you insert this latter in the lok you push this ball bearing to one side as it enters. Secondly, I noted that the barrel will not turn until the key is pushed right into the barrel and then a bit further. So it may be something to do with this. I do not really know.
Hope this is of use to someone!
Last edited:
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