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Tips

Stuck at work! Key won't turn in ignition

Yep. & cut the grooves deep.
 
Yer right, maybe someone at work would have something. I certainly do have a million things to fix itat my place. I dunno, I just pictured him walking back to his desk, getting out the Dremel tool and stringing a cord out into the parking lot...
 
FWIW:
Just received a new ignition switch/steering lock from Moss for my '78 'B' ...cost ?
$180 + and change...ouch!
Tosh
 
$180, ****. (edit: I can't say ****? I guess our manners as well as our cars have to be from another era.) That's why I didn't replace the ignition switch before (maybe it was a warning sign; the key would turn fine, but it stopped connecting the wires at the third notch. I had to string a makeshift ignition button into the dash, to be used once the fuel pump was on)

$180 cuts into my badly needed carb-rebuild and new speaker fund.
 
Well get rid of the steering wheel lock, then you can do as your wish to make it work till funds are available. Heck a house wall switch and a push button will work meanwhile.
 
Dan - you've got a PM.
 
Hooray! My MG is no longer stuck at work. The advice Kimberly and others gave was spot on, and it took less than ten minutes to get the steering wheel lock off. I'll take the lock to a locksmith, and find out what the deal is.

Thanks again.
 
Good to hear its working out - way to go Kimberly!

Keep us posted on the final outcome.
 
Forgot to ask, do you have a different key? Over time the key will wear down and not allow the tumblers to line up. If you do have a different key, stick it in the lock and see if it turns freely. If it does, then problem solved.
 
The problem, it now seems, is not that the mechanical lock stopped working (now that it is out, the key can turn it properly) but I think something to do with the way it met with the plastic, electronic portion of the lock. I think what happened is that I tried to turn the car on and the lock advanced through all the notches without turning the plastic switch at all, and once it was all the way forward I couldn't turn it backwords. This caused me to think that the lock itself was jammed, when in fact it was just stuck at the end of its travel.

The switch has been sloppy for a while now, and, now that I think about it, perhaps that day was hot enough to make the plastic switch strip, letting the metal break past it and fail to engage anything.

In the end, I think the steering wheel lock wouldn't even have engaged if I did turn the wheel, and I could've hot wired it as it was.
 
I may have a good, used ignition
 
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