Just finished rebuilding my steering column. Had the car 2 years, ignition switch would not go into accessory position. Tried oiling the ignition lock, no good.

I had noticed that there was no gap between the lock cylinder's black ring and the column so it looked like maybe the ring just couldn't be pushed in against the cylinder's spring to get over the accessory position detent on the cylinder.

The car is an '84 original Bose and had a non-Bose '85 radio in it which made me suspect that the radio had been stolen when the car was fairly new. When I got the column apart there were chisel marks on the alumium housing near the lock cylinder so maybe the whole car was stolen.

The problem was that the plastic housing that the lock cylinder goes into was too long where it meets the cylinder's black ring. I marked 1/8 inch or so off the end with masking tape, cut it off and its fine now. I put a lot of thought into it before making that cut. The cylinder in the car and the new one I bought were exactly the same. The cylinder's depth is set by the screw that holds it in - there is no adjustment. So maybe the original housing was broken when the car was stolen and was replaced with the wrong one (although it looks and works fine) or maybe there is one replacement part which should be trimmed for certain applications and somebody didn't read the instructions.

 

Is a Standard or Automatic

The Standard had a safety feature where the gear shift had to be in reverse.....

There is a cable that may need adjusting

 

I dont think my 87 has ever gone to acc. Previous 86 was the same.

 

Standard. I did the work with the column removed from the car and yes, the ball/actuator which connects to the shifter cable to lock the shifter into reverse when the key is removed had to be pulled up towards the steering wheel to enable the ignition switch to rotate back past the "off" position (5 position switch -"start", "run", "off", "lock", "accessory"). I found out about that as I was testing the ignition switch operation during re-assembly before putting the lock cylinder in. I taped the ball onto the column cover to hold it in position for testing.

But the reverse locking cable was not preventing the lock from going into accessory position. It was being held out by the lock itself. The lock has a detent on it which the black ring must be pushed towards the lock to clear. The part of the column that the lock slides into was preventing this. Once I cut it back the lock was fine and went into the accessory position.

 

With the key in the locked position you should be able to see about 1/8" between the lock's black ring and the column plastic. As you push the black ring towards the column (left) you should be depressing a spring and the ring should spring back out (right) if you release it. You must depress the spring to clear the accessory lockout detent on the back of the lock itself before the lock will rotate back into the accessory position.