OremuS
01-20-2005, 05:53 AM
...and no it is not because she is leavin me. lol.
My wife has a 93 Explorer that is basically going to be driven until it dies. The here in NE Ohio, we get a good amount of snow each year. With the snow comes road salt and the salt has gotten in an corroded all of the door locks (driver, passenger, and hatch). So after needing to get the door popped open on Tuesday night, I decided it was time to get replacement locks. So yesterday at lunch I checked around and a Ford dealer in the area was the only parts place that had the locks in stock, albeit a full set of locks with ignition switch. So, $110 later I had a full matching set which I installed last night. I was very surprised to see that Auto Zone, Napa, and Advanced couldn't even get a replacement.
Changing the door locks was easy, but this was the first time that I ever broke into a steering column and it was definitely an interesting experience. All I can say is that I never thought I would use an ice pick to work on a car, but it certainly made releasing the locking pin on the ignition switch pretty easy. The hardest part really was getting through all of the plates and covers around the steering column which just happen to be attched with torx head screws even though the rest of the dach is put together with regular screws. I guess Ford thinks that people are less likely to have a torx head screwdriver when trying to break into a steering column.
So after about 30 minutes of changing locks and an hour of monkeying around with the steering column, I have a wife that is much happier than on Tuesday and I learned a little bit about replacing an ignition switch.
My wife has a 93 Explorer that is basically going to be driven until it dies. The here in NE Ohio, we get a good amount of snow each year. With the snow comes road salt and the salt has gotten in an corroded all of the door locks (driver, passenger, and hatch). So after needing to get the door popped open on Tuesday night, I decided it was time to get replacement locks. So yesterday at lunch I checked around and a Ford dealer in the area was the only parts place that had the locks in stock, albeit a full set of locks with ignition switch. So, $110 later I had a full matching set which I installed last night. I was very surprised to see that Auto Zone, Napa, and Advanced couldn't even get a replacement.
Changing the door locks was easy, but this was the first time that I ever broke into a steering column and it was definitely an interesting experience. All I can say is that I never thought I would use an ice pick to work on a car, but it certainly made releasing the locking pin on the ignition switch pretty easy. The hardest part really was getting through all of the plates and covers around the steering column which just happen to be attched with torx head screws even though the rest of the dach is put together with regular screws. I guess Ford thinks that people are less likely to have a torx head screwdriver when trying to break into a steering column.
So after about 30 minutes of changing locks and an hour of monkeying around with the steering column, I have a wife that is much happier than on Tuesday and I learned a little bit about replacing an ignition switch.