Broken Key Worn Lock

RovinAround

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2008
192
0
Central Alabama
Most likely, but 35 seems a bit steep to me....I'd call NAPA or the like and see what their prices are for the setup as Dan described in the original post. Might come close to that price, but at least you know the parts are new, and if a switch is bad, you can get it replaced... .vs fighting seller and paypal for a refund.

Just a thought..let us know how yours turned out..I'm considering this as well.
Rovin
 

Two Cold Soakers

Well-known member
Apr 24, 2007
1,450
0
48
At your mom's
I did the chapman ignition mod and have not had any problems. I've got the button and two rockers installed in the little panel above the rearview mirror (where the moonroof switches might be?) Snaking the wires was a challenge but worth it.
My father-in-law loved it and made me install one in his 94 caravan.

Thanks to DC for the original motivation to do this.
(that's not a suck up. Piss off)
 

RovinAround

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2008
192
0
Central Alabama
Two Cold Soakers said:
I've got the button and two rockers installed in the little panel above the rearview mirror (where the moonroof switches might be?)

I was thinking either there, or the window control panel in the center console.

Two Cold Soakers said:
Thanks to DC for the original motivation to do this.
(that's not a suck up. Piss off)

X2
 

amschnellsten

Well-known member
Feb 5, 2008
157
0
just fixed mine. I pulled it apart and removed the steering lock, push in feature and rekeyed it to my door key which was different. thanks for the chisel trick. works great!!
 

jammin

Well-known member
Mar 5, 2007
116
0
Salem OR
I did this a while back. I used 3 toggles and a momentary switch.

According to the wiring diagram, there are 4 circuits, to go with the 3 "on" positions in the ignition (I = acc, II = power, III = start).

--The accessory circuit (green/white wire, for radio/etc) works in positions I and II.
--One power circuit (yellow, for... well, lots of stuff) works in positions II and III.
--The other power circuit (white wire, for windows/wipers/mirrors /etc) only works in position II.
--The starting circuit (white/red wire) only works in position III.

So for mine, I just put a separate switch in for each of those circuits:
Switch 1 = Accessories (radio, mostly)
Switch 2 = Starting power
Switch 3 = Other stuff, like windows and wipers
Button = start

Since the ignition cuts out both the accessory circuit and one of the power circuits in position III (starting), I usually just flip switch 2 then hit the button to start. I could probably leave the other two off if I felt like it, but usually turn them all on after starting. (Though once or twice my wife has been puzzled as to why the windows aren't working... turns out I forgot to turn switch 3 on.)

If I want to run the radio and nothing else (like at the drive-in), it's switch 1. And so on...

For the wiring, I put a large 5 position molex connector on the wires after cutting them away from the lock cylinder. Like this:

http://www.molex.com/cmc_upload/0/000/708/756/1625-5C-Rec_ISO.gif

Then I wired my switches into a matching connector, as if they were some sort of "module". I ended up binding the switches together into a block with electrical tape to make them easier to work with, and ended up leaving them that way. (I consider it temporary, but it holds together surprisingly well.)

For now, the "switch module" is sitting right on top of the steering column, and works great. I haven't decided where exactly to put them permanently yet. (Somewhere else for sure... they are pretty conspicuous there.) All I'll have to do is fab up an extension cable with the right molex connectors, route it, and then unplug/plugin the module in the new location.

Now, it'd probably be overkill to go out and get molex pins/housing/crimper/etc just for this, but I find them handy for lots of things, so I happened to have them already.



Looking at Chapman's 2-switch design to see which circuit he has on which switch, it looks like one switch has the ACC stuff, and both power circuits on the other switch. (Which is nice... my 3 switch version might duplicate the cylinder switch more closely, but is perhaps silly when you think about what it is doing and how it gets used.)

But I do think he has the description mixed up a bit...

If the first switch has the white & yellow wires, it would be ignition power, not ACC.
If the second switch has the green wire, it would be ACC power, not ignition.

Of course it doesn't really matter, it all works the same. But if you wanted to mount your switches in a particular order, it might save you 2 minutes worth of switching them back around. :)




I still need to fix the cylinder, though. It's starting to stick pretty bad. (I originally bypassed it because of an electrical issue, where power would remain on even with the key off and removed. Weird.)

On one of my other cars, it was possible to remove the cylinder itself from the casing (without any bashing or chiseling), pop all of the pins out of the lock, and put it back in. After that it was smooth as silk, with no sticking. Is something like that possible with this one, or would that even address the sticking? (I guess that'd depend on where the jamming in mechanism takes place.)
 

MonLand

Well-known member
Jun 29, 2005
323
2
Herndon, VA - USA
jammin said:
On one of my other cars, it was possible to remove the cylinder itself from the casing (without any bashing or chiseling), pop all of the pins out of the lock, and put it back in. After that it was smooth as silk, with no sticking. Is something like that possible with this one, or would that even address the sticking? (I guess that'd depend on where the jamming in mechanism takes place.)
Yes, I did this. See http://www.discoweb.org/forums/showpost.php?p=402365&postcount=14, since my Internet connection is down at home, the server is not available (send me a private email if you want to see the pictures).
It does require a little bit of chiseling (from memory: to remove the ball that holds the cylinder in the housing ????), but nothing you can not do with only a flat screwdriver. Takes probably one hour to undo the entire mechanism, take it apart, grind whatever does not look good and re-install it.
Obviously.... you could just remove all the pins and never have it stick ever again (but then, any key/screw driver would start it. Not worst than the switch setup! ;-) ).
 

MonLand

Well-known member
Jun 29, 2005
323
2
Herndon, VA - USA
ptschram said:
It is much less brutal to use a sharp chisel and gently drive the shear bolts to the point where they can be spun out by hand.

Ditto to that, takes no time and is clean. At first, I started drilling one of the bolt to provide a place to put the chisel, but did not do it on the second bolt and it worked great.
 

WalterKurtz

Member
Jun 15, 2008
16
0
this mod worked well and went together with no issues. Im currently running the switches/button to a box via a wire harness which is temporally Velcro-ed to the dash. Do any of you guys have pics of your setup mounted nicely in the vehicle?
 

mjbrox

Well-known member
Jun 30, 2008
1,812
48
Golden CO
WalterKurtz said:
this mod worked well and went together with no issues. Im currently running the switches/button to a box via a wire harness which is temporally Velcro-ed to the dash. Do any of you guys have pics of your setup mounted nicely in the vehicle?

or pictures of the entire process would be good
 

DiscoKids

Well-known member
Oct 16, 2006
248
0
South Carolina
how do you stick the key in if you pry the entire cylinder lock off? anyone find out the wires to work with too unlock the steering wheel? after you do the wiring for the switches?
 
S

Spudisco7

Guest
great write up, I had my one and only key break in my ignition. So i wired two 30 amp toggles and a 60 amp momentary switch. Works great and only cost about $30 instead of $600 for a new ignition. I ended up taking my broke key to a locksmith 3 keys that work in my door great for $11.
 

cdmbrennan

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2005
391
7
Creve Coeur, Missouri
Man, I love Discoweb. I followed this procedure 12 years ago, and then was able to find this post again when I needed to rewire my ignition today. Have to admit- my wiring back then was janky...don't know how it lasted as long as it did.

Thanks D Chapman for the awesome write-up in 2007!