Pinto Car Club of America

 Well someone tried to steal my poor old pinto. It was 230 am and the dog downstairs kept barking and barking,I went outside and they ran off.I guess Im lucky they did or maybe they are.

I found the silver collar from t he ignition cylinder in the passengers seat I guess they were trying to tear it all out through the end so they could start it.The Stereo I put in was part way out too,maybe two of them working on it.

So now its hard to get the key in at night,and hard to turn it too. I bought a new cylinder even though I hate to have to use two different keys after all these years.

The problem is,I followed the instructions on what position to put the cylinder in to press the pin in,but it wont budge. The new cylinder the pin goes in fine in that same position.So I guess its corroded or bound up some how. Does anyone have any advice,tried hitting it with a drill bit and hammer not too hard though. Maybe the old collar could be jb welded back on?

Ideas please,  thanks everyone

What may work is a punch on the pin to jar it loose. Either that or carefully drill it out.  If that piece is broken off it can't be fixed so the only option is to replace the cylinder.

I'm sure you already know this stuff... Remove the steering wheel and turn signal switch.

With the key in the run position, there is a small cylinder pin along the lock cylinder housing towards the right outside edge, this can be pushed in (or...down), but only with the key in the run position. Once that pin is depressed, you can withdraw the cylinder from the housing collar (again, only with the key in the run position).

If the pin is jammed up from something the thieves did to it, you can drill it out and then withdraw the cylinder with the key in the run position, just be sure to clean out any debris from the cylinder's bore once it's out.

Worst case scenario, you have to replace the entire steering column collar that houses the cylinder. I had to do that with my 78 Sedan when one of my ex's messed up the cylinder to the point it wouldn't turn AT ALL. Color matching the interior paint so it still looks original is the hard part.

I ran into the same problem when replacing the cylinder in my wagon. I had lost the keys so I had to drill the cylinder where the key goes in so I could get it in the run position. Once I did that the pin pushed in easy but the cylinder would not come out. I had to take a screwdriver and actually pry the cylinder up a bit to get it out. I stuck a screwdriver between the chrome ring and the housing and popped it loose. With the chrome ring gone it might be a little harder to figure out where to pry it.

Duck bill pliers or some good length needle nose pliers would work. I have done that at the junk yard before with the duck bill style pliers.