I parked the car last night and all was good. This morning when I tried to leave the ignition cyl would not turn. It moved just barely enough to unlock the steering wheel. My ? is would this be the cylinder or the switch? I looked on shoebox's site and I don't think I even want to deal with the switch in this heat. I know about all of the airbag wires and such i just am getting mixed signals on which one of these things could be my problem. Please help, thanks.

 

My son had the same thing happen to him a couple of years ago. I got in a forced the key (his car was in a bad spot on campus and we had nothing to lose) and we were able to get it started but he had to hold the ignition half-way while he drove it to place where we could work on it. The short story is that we bought a used steering column for $50 off this site and replaced the whole thing. It looked easier than trying to dis-assemble the whole column and replace the actuator slide mechanism.

In the end it was really only a messed up switch down inside the column (the electrical switch part that is attached to the top of the column down deep under your dash). One of the spring loaded pins sprung out and was shorting out in there.

If you have the patience and can get down in there without tearing the column down, you might check that first. To pull the wheel and get down into the column where you can work on the inner slide stuff takes some specialty tools that most people don't really have.

...Good luck, I feel for you :-(

 

You won't really be able to tell without digging into it. The key cylinder or sector could be jammed or the switch could be. Until you can isolate the two, you won't know. If you remove the rod from the switch and it is still jammed, then the trouble is up in the column.