chiespet

I have an 86 vette with manual and bypassed VATS. I need an new ignition cylinder and was hoping one was available that would fit but without all the VATS contacts and wiring. I would think removing the complexity would give a more reliable component.

Thanks,
Frank

Cruisinfanatic

here's an 85. Not sure if it will work for you though
https://www.ebay.com/itm/GM-OEM-84-8...0AAOSwwvZZTBPT

Tod Stiles

It can be done, did it to my 86. You can install a regular GM lock cylinder in the column but you will find that the sleeve it fits into (on the column) is a little too deep as the cylinder with VATs is slightly longer. What I did was use a small diameter sanding disk on my air drill and sanded about 1mm or so of the sleeve. Works great been about 15 years now since I did it.

Oh yeah just remembered, you can use a black sharpie where you sand to touch up the bare metal.

chiespet

Thanks! this is just the information I was looking for. Do you recall if it was for an 85 or any other info?

Frank

Tod Stiles

What I did, I believe, is exactly that. I bought a complete set for an 85. At the time I changed all the locks on the car. I got it from one of the regular vendors.
Ecklers has it, part 25-107549-1. I'm sure you can find it other places too. If you are prepared to sand down the sleeve, take it all apart, drop the new cylinder in and you'll see exactly what you need to do. You need to get enough clearance to push in while turning the key. Took me less than 1/2 an hour to do including a few minutes figuring out how I was going to get it to work and a quick black Sharpie touch-up.

PatternDayTrader

If you already bypassed the vats system, why don't you just use the vats lock cylinder and cut the wiring off ?

aklim

What complexity? The VATS is just the whipping boy for everything that goes wrong with the car. You already bypassed the VATS so why spend more money to buy another component and do more work? If you want to avoid problems, which this new item can create, why even buy it unless there is a real issue to solve?

chiespet

The current lock cylinder is worn out and needs replacement otherwise I would leave it alone. As I will be in there to change it anyway I might as well improve it if possible by removing unneeded complexity.

aklim

True but why make complexity to remove complexity? The right one fits in with no real issues other than the VATS Paranoia. The bypass replacement now brings a slew of questions.

WVZR-1

How well do you understand the Saginaw tilt/ignition operation? What's convinced you that the cylinder is 'wore out'? Cylinder is but 1 aspect of the operation. There's a pinion and also a rack that can fail. If you need a cylinder I don't understand the desire to complicate the service by using 'other than' another correct cylinder. If this were 100$ + savings event then maybe a consideration BUT knowing that you had to 'ask if/how' I'd say leads me to believe there's a good likely hood of you failing and then it would certainly become a 100$+ loss for correction + the initial investment of the wrong parts.

A VATS cylinder is a 25$ - $30 expense and you just buy the least expensive resistance blanks available to make new keys. You ruin nothing in the column for the replacement it if 'in fact' it's your problem.

It's likely less than a 40$ parts buy for correct stuff, incorrect parts likely half of that and then there's the 'what will I ruin' aspect of the 'adventure'

You gain NOTHING doing this replacement using less than correct parts. NOTHING !!!

chiespet

Thank you for your encouragement.