Nice write up ykab !!

very nice work...

I went with something less elegant.

I think Security was the whole idea here with Mercedes , I accidentally touched off some wires that feel out of the receiver on the starter switch , the wires were dry and some touched together for the car to try to start , it’s hot wired easily , thing revolves around the locking wheel .Some thrives would break the steering lock to bypass this issue on some cars with heavy jarring force on the wheel . The problem with thieves trying this on Old Mercedes is they use the correct metals by testing and retesting each unit . The German engineering is through the whole car , they last .

Agreed. If you’re going to force the steering column lock you’re going to destroy something else like the wheel or the lock itself.

When I hear a w123 gets stolen, I wonder how the thieves got it. I suspect they got the key. You can drill or grind the little retainer pin.

There are a lot of nice steering locks left at the yards on picked apart cars. It’s a pain to salvage that part without the key. I wonder if you can request the key at LKQ? It looks like entire lock sets would be a nice item to put on the shelf if you intend to keep one of these cars long term.