95 taurus sho ATX ignition switch disconnected

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brandon1186

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I have a 1995 Taurus sho ATX and today the ingition switch failed. It started fine but when I went to shut the car off it seems like the lock assembly is no longer attached to the switch, it has no resistance at all and I had to disconnect the distributator wiring to stop the engine and then disconnect rhe battery to power off the radio, DRL, etc. Anyone have any idea what happened? I suspect that there is a rod that goes fron the key assembly to the ignition switch itself. I don't have a manual so I'm hoping someone can tell me if there is a rod and where the switch itself is and how to access it.

Thanks for any help.
 

hawkeye18

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The rod is inside the steering column. Chances are low that the rod itself malfunctioned. Chances are much better that either the ignition cylinder or ignition switch latches failed.

I had the same thing happened to me. Both were so worn that they just kinda stopped engaging at the same time. It's about $30 total in parts and neither is real hard to replace. The switch is harder than the cylinder.
 

brandon1186

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thanks for the quick response do i have to drop the colume to access ignition cylinder or ignition switch?????
 

hawkeye18

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no. You need to remove the upper and lower shroud... it's trickier than it looks. Get a screwdriver and take the four screws out of the bottom. You can remove the lower shroud once you've removed the steering tilt lever (it just screws out, but it can require quite a bit of force... vise grips work well for this).

Now, grab a pen (or a 1/8" center punch if you have one), and after inserting the keys and turning the ignition to RUN, insert the pen/punch into the access hole under the ignition cylinder. Once that's depressed, you can pull the whole cylinder out.

Now that the cylinder's out, you can remove the upper shroud, which will require some maneuvering around the emergency flasher button.

I believe you'll have to require the lower knee panel (4 T-25 screws) and something else past that to get to the ignition switch itself... once you get the knee panel off, you should be able to stick your head under there and figure out where the switch is (there is a huge bundle of wires leading to it).

FYI, there is a black and purple wire that leads to the lip of the ignition cylinder (well, the sleeve that it goes into). This is what makes the car go DING DING DING DING every time you open your door with the keys in the ignition. Simply cut or otherwise remove this wire and attached plastic 'bit' to disable this annoying "feature". This makes it so it still goes DING DING DING if you left your lights on. Obviously, don't do this unless you can get into your vehicle via the keypad on the outside...
 

brandon1186

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I would like to thank you for the info i took the colum off the car and the acturator rod came right off so we shoved it back in and it was good to go:thankyou:
 

hawkeye18

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Glad I could help! :thumb:

If you have *any* other questions, don't hesitate to ask! (after you search, of course lol)
 

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