In order to depress the pin the steering coulum lock needs to be in that position that you were in when you removed the Lock Tumbler. If it is not in that position you cannot depress the pin. (I am speaking of the pin that I epoxied down.)

It depends on what broke.
In my case it was the piece that went down into the Ignition Switch that broke. The actual locking mechanism that locked the steering colum was OK.

My opinion is that if you pull out your Lock Tumbler because it is not turning correctly you might as well pull the Steering Colum Lock out and inspect the Ignition Switch and the innards of the Steering Colum Lock to see of they are OK or right on the edge.

Right. I recall mine was functional but it was hanging up internally due to wear. I imagined a big groove had just worn in the metal inside and was hanging up things.

I didn't realize I could freeze it in the unlocked position.

Or..how do i remove the plate. If i can remove the innards..i might just return the assrmbly. Thanks

There is plastic Safety Belt Switch attached to the Steering Colum Lock. You are going to need 2 old stye Bobby Pins, the ones that are black or brown and made of thin flat metal. If it has those plastic numbs on the end they need to come off.
You need to slide the bobby pins into each side of the switch between the Aluminu Housing in order to depress the plastic hooks that are built into the Switch.
Also the Steering coulm lock plunger has to be maipulated to push up on the switch so it can be pulled out of the hole.
In the 2nd pic the yellow arrow shows the direction that the switch has to be pushed to get it out and the red arrows show where the bobby pins go.

Well this is a pic of my damaged Steering Colum Lock that I sawed apart lengthwise.

The Steel Plate #2 is well crimped into a recess n the Housing. However, when the plate is off you can only get the large spring out.

Part #1 has the shaft broken off one end but that needs to come out I believe the same direction as you took the Lock Tumbler Out. When that is out #4 and #5 and that small spring inbetween them can come out throug that hole the plate was removed From.

I can't remember what needs to be done with the locking pin and spring in order to get the #5 out. In fact since I cut the Colum Lock apart I don't think I don't think I took it apart in the normal manner.

Wow! This.is.Awesome! Thanks for the pictures and explanations. I gave up on removing the rear plate. Maybe ill try and rip out that small spring through the saftey seatbelt harness Either way, this great. Thanks.

The steel plate is pretty well crimped in. It would take some grinding of the aluminum to get it out.
For someone else remving that plate it could be epoxied back in place with JB Weld the one that takes 2-4 hours to cure. I say that because I don't think the fast curing epoxy is as strong as the slow cured one.

You got that right. The regular JB Weld is the strongest epoxy I have used, (and I used a lot of epoxies in my boatyard), while the Kwik version is pretty poor.

Richard

The photos in post 19 don't look familiar from what I remember in fixing my 1984 300D's key switch assembly. I don't recall a seat-belt interlock switch, but perhaps there was. If so, it wasn't anywhere near the shiny steel plate. I don't see the plate in the photos. It sits furthest from the steering wheel. I had to pry it off to get at the innards where I found the broken detent spring-holder post. As I recall, that plate was staked in 4 places by slightly crimping the die-cast aluminum over it. I either beat them back w/ a flat screwdriver or filed them off (forget), but it didn't take long. It was secured fairly tight when I knocked it back on, but I used epoxy as assurance.