Brandon50394

My ignition is stuck and won't lock I can start it up and turn it off fine the ignition just won't go into the lock position

Iceaxe

Easy peasy....

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...lfunction.html

toobroketoretire

Does your steering column have the lever on the right side that you have to depress in order to turn the key to the LOCK position? My '82 has one so I assume your '80 also has one. That lever is there to prevent you from accidentally locking your steering wheel when you merely want to turn your key to shut the engine off.

Jim Shea

Just a point of clarification. General Motors passenger cars started to have locking steering columns the 1969 model year. From 1969 through 1976 Corvettes had a cable from the transmission to the steering column to signal that the transmission was in PARK (automatics) or in REVERSE (manual shifts).

Starting in 1977 the back drive cable from the transmission was eliminated and a small lever as added just below the steering column lock cylinder. You can easily see the lever in the above picture. You must trip the lever in order to be able to rotate your ignition key (and lock cylinder to OFF-LOCK and ACCESSORY.

The lever does not have to be tripped to rotate your ignition key into START, RUN, or OFF.

Your 1980 Vette has that small trip lever. It should smoothly move as your finger actuates the lever. It will open a gate (inside the steering column head) to allow rotation of your ignition key to OFF-LOCK.

Jim