When I was a poor college student (funny how a lot of the bodges were
done by poor college students), I loaned my '72 Spitfire to my
roommate. He called me an hour after he left and said the key was
stuck in the ignition. I caught a ride across campus to where he was
and then proceeded to break off the key in the ignition. With what few
tools I had at school, I managed to rip the ignition lock out of the
integral ignition/steering wheel lock housing and shoved a bobby pin
(supplied by my future wife at the time) in the spring-loaded steering
wheel lock mechanism to keep it from springing into the locked
position. I then pulled the electrical part of the ignition switch off
the back of the housing, stuck a flat-bladed screwdriver into the nylon
piece on the face of the switch, turned and voila', it started. I
drove the car like this for probably a year until the nylon piece was
rounded out and the screwdriver wouldn't turn it anymore. At that time
I figured out that the twist-off bolt heads could be chiseled off and
the lock housing removed from the steering column. So I bought an
ignition switch for a '67 Chevy which had the same pinouts and hose
clamped it around the steering column and used a GM key (yuch, on my
keychain) to start it. And yes, in case you did not quite understand
how the original bodge worked, if the bobby pin had fallen out, the
steering wheel would have locked up which would have been pretty bad at
high speeds. Fortunately, the bobby pin never fell out. Oh the
foolish things we do when we are young.
Pat Willems
'72 Spit Mk IV (in pieces)
Flower Mound, TX
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