well the ignition in my 87 ford took a dive so i need to change the key tumbler on teh colume, ive done this before but it was on my blazer and was easy, my ford f250 has cruise controll on teh wheel, how hard will this be to do? anyone? thanks, jiMMy

The newer fords are easy. Turn the key to ignition and look under . You will see a small hole that you have to stick a small screwdriver in. This will release the assembly and you can pull it out. Yours should be the same. You wont have to take any of parts of the column apart. Changing the tumblers is a pain in the a$$. Good luck. Make sure you do it on a clean table or bench and mark the tumbler number as you pull them out.

damnit jiMMy quit breaking the new truck already. first the coil and now the ignition. was thomas playing roughly w/ your truck again?

ps you damn box in the fj is locked.....and I think that box is going to get integrated into a bumper and rack behind the cruzah tommorrow so there will be room for the cell otherwise stuff is gonna have to get heavily modified. I'll use my discression :grinpimp:

top

Top? Does that mean you didnt get it out?

havnt had any time to try yet. i dotn need to take apart the tumbler just take out old ona nd put in a new, i did this in my blazer but it was super easy as it had a grant wheel and just came out once the springs was out and installed a new one. so i just need to get a new one for my ford and hopefully what you said is accurate for an 78 ford and it should be a 10 min thing. jiMMy

your talking about swap'n out the ignition cylinder.

tumbler cylinder what ever u put the fricken key in when u turn it to start the truck. jiMMy

Is it a 78 or a 87? Should be easy if it is a 87 but I dont know about the 78. I used to work at a ford dealer and it would take me about 45 min. to do the job. It is easy to take out the assembly but a pain to change the tumblers to match the key.

87 ford f250. and when i bough the tumbler for my blazer it came with keys. so im hoping the ford one does too! jiMMy

I am sure you can order it with the keys. I havent tried. It would make it a 2 min job in that case.

Just follow the description wild1 gave you. It's a piece of cake to pull the tumbler out. When you get a new one the dealer can set the tumbler to match your existing key if you want.

thanks a bunch you guys, i will let you know how it goes tomorrow when i get a chance to work on it after class. jiMMy

New "ignition cylinder" = new keys.

ok well i changed the tumbler in about 2 seconds and that was the problem. turn the key and nothing, all the acc items work, ie radio and windows but no resistence when it comes to starting the thing. however if you turn the key to on or run and jump the 2 posts on the fender mounted solenoid with a screw driver it will start. is this a bad solenoid or something else i should look for? jiMMy

Check at the solenoid. You should see a red wire with a blue tracer.(might be white w/pink ) Should have a little 90 degree boot on it. Take it off and check to see if it has power when someone is turning the key to the crank position. If it has power than the solenoid is nfg.

The actual ignition switch where the wiring is found is located at the bottom of the steering column. There is a rod which connects the key tumbler to the switch. When you turn the key this rod has to be pushed down to make the contact that sends power to the solenoid. Check to make sure that this rod is seated correctly and that it is moving when you turn the key to "start". It may be necessary to loosen or remove the upper steering column support bracket to see the rod.

Jimmy... Sounds like battery cables to me. :) Very common problem on fords. It will probably be the positve and it will probably run ya 90 bucks or so at the dealer. If you can make one. :) They tend to go bad from the inside out.

Originally posted by cmegoup
The actual ignition switch where the wiring is found is located at the bottom of the steering column. There is a rod which connects the key tumbler to the switch. When you turn the key this rod has to be pushed down to make the contact that sends power to the solenoid. Check to make sure that this rod is seated correctly and that it is moving when you turn the key to "start". It may be necessary to loosen or remove the upper steering column support bracket to see the rod. turns out the actuators, pot metal dealio inside the colume that guides teh rod to teh ignition switch broke in 2. and when it broke it eventually broke the pot metal housing which the switch lies in on the coloume. all in all 6 hours later and a lot of help from a good friend keith beale(sp?) back on the road again, learned alot too about steering colums. THANKS AGAIN KEITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! jiMMy

anytime smoocher!

Use a slide hammer :flipoff2: