Bill,
Thank you for the pics. From what I can see, I'm doing everything correctly, which makes it even more frustrating.

As you allude to, I really don't think I need the pliers to force the black ring to turn. I can wiggle the ring. I'm sure it's the tab doing it's job in not allowing me to turn it.

I suspect that for whatever reason, the tab is just not being pushed down despite the force I am applying. I soaked the lock with lubricant, hoping that would help. I may mess around with it again tomorrow.

If the key does bind up again (as I said earlier, it has only happened once) I will start calling locksmiths and mechanics to see what my options are.

This is a long post, but it explains the outcome and my errors, as well as names an indy that came to my rescue.

When leaving work this morning, the key stuck on me and would not turn. I had to make a stop on the way home and it stuck again, just a little. At this point I am paranoid about turning the car off and removing the key.

I went to a local indy and asked how much he would charge to remove the cylinder for me. The shop owner came out and looked at the car, which was still running. He claimed that it's a 2 hour job and that without the new assembly in hand ready to install, I will not be able to move the car until the new parts are in. He told me to figure $500 and he could have the part here in about 3 weeks.

I tried to explain to him everything that you all have been kind enough to share with me, but he told me it was all wrong. So off I went to another indy shop just down the road.

This gentleman told me he charges one hour, as he needs to take the knee panel off to remove the plastic trim piece around the key cylinder. He claims that without accessing it from the back that the retention tabs will brake off. I informed him that they must have been broken by a previous owner, as I had followed advice from here and was told to pry the piece off with a screw driver. When I had done this days ago I had found someone had glued the piece back into place. I guess someone had removed it incorrectly in the past and broke the tabs, just as the indy said would happen.

He had me remove the trim, which I pried off. He chuckled seeing the glue I had used to reattach the piece.

He then showed me how to remove the cylinder. He did it in a matter of seconds, he took the time to show and explain things to me, and only charged me $20. I paid him double. He was fantastic to stop working on the Porsch he had on the lift and to take the time to attend to my problem and courteous enough to educate me. The shop is K&B Foreign Car Service in Vero Beach, FL. I went back to the first shop with my key cylinder in hand and let him know what I thought of him.

Once he had the cylinder out my errors were obvious. I had been attempting to insert the wire with the key turned to the first dimple in the black collar. I made this mistake because of some posts calling postion "0" position "I" and position "I" position "II". My misunderstanding, despite the pics on Diesel Giant showing the correct position, was furthered do the fact that at position "I" I was able to insert the wire about an inch. The wire was going into a space on the cylinder between the portion that turns and the outer shell of the cylinder itself. This explains the post I made earlier about being able to turn the key a couple of degress in either direction even with the wire inserted.

I had made attempts to insert the wire at the correct postion, but could never get it to go in more than 1/8". Once the cylinder was removed I saw that this was due to needing to angle the wire up ever so slightly to get it to go into the hole.

Now I know. The education was not too expensive, although I did pull most of my hair out and blistered my thumbs.

I will be ordering the new cylinder in the next couple of days, as I have to show up at the dealer, over an hour away, in person with my paperwork to do so. Not conveinent.

I'm assuming you have the tumbler out and are using a screwdriver? If so, you should try turning the key in tumbler with the tumbler in your hand. If it turns freely, it's most likely not the tumbler - or cylinder, as you may call it - that needs to be replaced. If it does stick, that's good. The new tumbler should be under $100 from the dealer.

If the key turns with no problem, you probably need a new ignition lock assembly, which is quite a bit more expensive and pretty difficult for a beginner - such as myself - to install.

Here's a link to the thread I started when I had this same problem:

Replacing (?) the steering lock

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1983 MB 300SD Turbo Diesel

JimZ,
Thanks for the info. I will try the key in the removed tumbler to see how well it works.

By way of further elimination, if the problem is not the tumbler won't the problem persist while I use the screw driver in place of a key, or does the problem only manifest itself when a tumbler is in place and being used?

JimZ,
I think you just saved me the cost of a new tumbler/cylinder as well as a lot more frustration.

My key does seem to work fine with the the tumbler out of the car. I went out to the car, turned the wheel to engage the steering wheel lock and then tried the trusty screwdriver that serves as my temporary key. I had a hard time turning the screwdriver to start the car.

The thought of the problem being more than the tumbler seemed daunting. I then remembered one of the many posts I had printed out. I will cut and paste it at the bottom of this.

The poster related how he stuffed some paper in a gap at the back of the mechanisim to keep the dead bolt lock from actuating. He no longer has a locking steering wheel, but he did not need to replace anything and he overcame the problem.

I have now stopped the locking mechanisim from engaging in the same manner as the original poster of this method. I will test this over the next couple of days. If it works trouble free, I will leave the obstruction in place to bypass the lock mechanisim and reinstall my current tumbler.

Here's the post from 2002:190E ignition switch...

Gil
Registered Offender Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: NH
Posts: 202


JUST did this!

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Hey, I feel for you! I just came outside from fixing my ignition switch.

It locked up on me a few days ago outside of Blockbuster videos. Key would not turn, so I had it towed to a nearby shop, where they said the only option was to drill it out and replace the cylinder, and the expensive part that contains the steering wheel lock, etc. This job would run about $700 at the MB stealer, and the shop where I was wanted about $400(+/-) to do the job.

Quickly, I jumped into a nearby phone booth and changed into the superhero known as Cheap Bastard, who slayed the bill with his miserly habits. Cheap Bastard requested that they drill out the lock, but go no further. After doing this, Cheap Bastard reasoned, the car could be started with a screwdriver until funds could be found to do the job correctly.

I drove away for $95 bucks as Cheap Bastard waved and rode off into the sunset.



Now, I could have stopped there, but instead I ordered a new cylinder and key for about $38, and a new black sleeve thingy (bezel?) that screws over the lock. I saved the original chrome trim ring.

When I got home today, I found the parts on the doorstep and started the installation process, only to find that the real problem was (and likely is in your car) the dead bolt lock in the expensive part (I forget what it's called). It seems even with a new cylinder installed, the key wouldn't unlock the dead bolt and I had to take it out, moving the dead bolt away with a screw driver (it takes some practice, so be a little patient with yourself).

To keep the dead bolt from causing me any more grief, I wadded up a little bit of paper and shoved it in the gap, holding the deadbolt latch permanently in the open position. I then installed the cylinder. Using a "paper clip in the pinhole" as described in other posts, I held down the little latch on the side of the cylinder while screwing down the black bezel thingy over the keyhole.

So now i have a working key (it dsoesn't match, Cheap Bastard bought the universal one versus paying $95 for a custom ordered matching lock.)

True, my steering wheel no longer locks, but since when has that ever been a theft deterrent in the first place?

For about $150 (including the tow), a few hours of my time and some liberally applied foul language, I took care of this and you can too.

:p


Gil

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Last edited by Gil : 12-16-2002 at 06:26 PM.

I love this place. Can you imagine owning one of these old Benz without it?

__________________
1998 E300 +310,000K
1996 E300 +460,000K

I changed the ign assembly in whole on my euro. It was fairly easy. More so than getting the tumbler out the first time.

__________________
http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Glad I could help!

There is one preventative step you may want to take. I'm not sure how long the balled up piece of paper will last, so just to be sure, do this: turn the steering wheel a little before you turn the car off and take your keys out. The lock may not work with the paper in there, but if the paper fails, the lock won't work with the steering wheel turned. This is what I do. And like I said before, MB mechanics advise against this, and I'm sure they would advise against the the balled up paper method. It is best to just fix it, because if it locks up for good, you've read enough by now to know it is VERY expensive to fix. Right now I have a list of more immediate problems to attend to, so for now I'll keep my fingers crossed and remember to turn the wheel before I turn the car off!

__________________
1983 MB 300SD Turbo Diesel

As I run my test, I have a piece of hard plastic that I trimmed to fit stuffed into the hole to prevent the mechanism from functioning. We'll see how it works. I think it's a better choice than paper.

I want to fix, or have fixed, everything that's wrong on the car, and I want it done correctly. It seems that each day the list gets longer. Any money that I can save on this that will not affect the functioning or appearance of the car is money I can spend on another item needing attention.