108 Ignition Switch questions
 

My '67 250s has a bad ignition switch in it. When you turn the key to the "start" position the car won't start (the electrical portion of the ignition switch is bad). Therefore, the previous owner installe push button switch to start the car and bypassed the igniton switch for starting it. I don't care for it, and I know that in time this ignition is going to fail completely. Therefore, I called MB to see what the electrical portion would cost me. I almost fell over when they told me $740.00!!!! WOW! I now understand why the previous owner bypassed it and did what he did!!!

Anyway, I ran across a guy that had a complete good used ignition switch out of a 108 280SE with the 6 cylinder motor, and he offered it to me for $30.00 so I snatched it hoping it would work on the ignition switch that is in my 250S. So my question is, will it indeed work? I think all I really need is just the electrical portion off of the assembly, so could I take that portion off of the one I bought and put it on the ignition switch of my 250S? Since the ignition is 2 piece, with the electrical portion simply screwing on to the mechanical portion, if they are identical, then I could use the electrical piece off the one I bought which would allow me to use my original key which would be great so I wouldn't have to have 2 different keys for the car.

My thinking is that since they both have the 6 cyl motors, and are both 108 chassis, the ignitions SHOULD be identical, but I could be wrong. I would appreciate someone letting me know for sure....

Before condemning the ignition switch, make sure he did not jumper direct to the starter b/c he had a bad neutral safety/starter lockout sw...
Quite common jumper fix...........

Great idea, and we will check it, although I don't think that is the case here. When you turn off the ignition switch, the car continues running for anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds which is suggestive to me of being a bad ignition switch, especially since he bypassed it on the starting side....

If he jumped it right at the sw , that would be the case..
But.. many times they just put a sw in line w/bat. power to starter solinoid. .. this also eliminates the possible bad N/S sw..
An easy test is to use you jumper set-up as is and see if the car will not start in gear .. if, it still starts in any gear , they have jumpered as I suggest...

Thank you for the advice/help! I will definitely check it out! If it turns out that what you have suggested is indeed what they have done, I will probably just leave it as is.

In the meantime, I would still appreciate someone letting me know if the 280SE ignition is the same as the 250S ignition, just incase the ignition DOES turn out to be the problem....

Just go to FastLane and see ...

(scratching head) Fastlane? What is that and where is that?

Look up about 4 " .. Fastlane is the Parts Support and Info Source for this WebSite...

DOH! I knew that sounded familiar. LOL! Well, in the meantime, I looked on another site, and they show to be the same ignition. So I'm set to go if it turns out to be the ignition that is the problem......

Thanks again!