So this is my first thread on CorvetteForum, hi everyone! My father-in-law recently gave me a manual trans 1975 Corvette to 'fix up', and I've never touched a Corvette in my life, but I've done frame-off rebuilds of older Jeeps, so the general mechanical knowledge is great but my 3rd gen Corvette knowledge is zero.

Alright, so when the Vette was dropped off at my house everything worked fine (more or less) except the keys wouldn't come out of the ignition. I found a thread here where the same issue was discussed and it said to pull the cable interlock lever up, so I did and it worked like a charm, keys came right out. A few weeks later I come back to the Vette to move it a bit, and I start it up, but neural is reverse, it won't shift into reverse, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear all just make it stall. I found another thread with this issue that says I need to push that same interlock lever back down for the car to operate normally. SO I do that and the transmission works fine again, but the keys are stuck. I know this CAN'T be how GM designed it to work, but for the life of me I have no idea what or where the root issue lies. Help!
Note: Feel free to break it down for me like I'm a slow 5 year old, no offense will be taken.

 

I'm a little confused as to whether you have an auto or manual trans...
As a stopgap measure, you can disconnect the cable at the interlock and ziptie the lever in the up position. This disconnects the two components so it shifts and the keys come out.

 

Good catch! Sorry, it’s a manual. Thanks for the tip! I’ll give it a try tomorrow to help in the meantime.

 

The cables get, sticky, dirty, rusty but are easy to save.
Remove the cable from the car, not too difficult. Then shoot both ends with PB Blaster, soak it good and work the cable back and forth til it moves freely again. Sometimes you may find a bend or kink at one end. These can usually be corrected at the same time with a good pair of pliers. Reinstall, problem solved.