<VV> Ignition switch removal

[Doug Mackintosh]

Yesterday I posted about a problem on the Mongrel Corvair I am working on. I had tried to remove the ignition lock cylinder, but instead of popping out, it allowed me to rotate it further and would neither pop out nor return to its original position.
 
I have now managed to get it out, so I will share what I found.
 
The lock cylinder has a small boss which hits the little spring loaded pin as it is rotated CCW. The little hole in the cylinder keyslot bezel is positioned just CCW of the CCW edge of the boss, so when you use a paper clip thru the hole to depress the pin it lets it rotate over the pin. It then rotates CCW just a few degrees until it hits a boss cast into the housing. At this point 2 slots (one wider than the other) line up allowing the cylinder to pop out.  For some reason the cylinder did not pop out when it should have. When I continued rotating the cylinder, the boss did not stop it (due to excessive slop and some wear of the boss) so I was able to rotate CCW past it. There is another boss which stops it about half way around, so I could not just continue CCW until I hit the pin again and depress the pin to get back to normal position. When I rotated CW I hit the pin on the CW end of the boss on the lock cylinder. But the hole is on the other end
 of that boss, so I had no way to push the pin down when I hit it going CW. And the cylinder would not release anywhere in between because it only lines up the 2 different width release slots at one point in the 360 degrees.  
 
The solution was to drill another 1/16 diameter hole 3.4 inches CW from the original hole. This places the second hole at the opposite end of the lock cylinder boss (the original hole is at the CCW end of the boss. Center punching and drilling the hole was very easy and the finished product would look factory to the uninitiated. When the cylinder is rotated CW until it contacts the spring pin, the 2nd hole provides access to depress the pin allowing the cylinder to rotate past the pin to the cylinder release position. 
 
Once I got the cylinder back in the release position, the cylinder popped out (this time).

-- Doug Mackintosh
Corsa member since 1996
Corsa/NC member since 1996, Virtual Vairs member
Corvair owner 1969-1971 and 1996-on