Eighty-two Degrees of Freedom

This is one of those days that hints of summer, even before springtime has sprung. The air is warm, the wind is light, the sky is blue ... and the car is acting up. Like it wants some attention.

This is what happens when I take too long to hang around after church, chatting with folks, and give my keys to the kids so that they can go sit out in the car and wait for me. They put the keys into the ignition and turn on ACC so that the radio works, and then they listen to the radio, kinda like we used to do when we were kids at Hermitage Road, sitting out in the parking lot listening to Kasey Kasem and the Top 40 Countdown.

Only this time, the key didn't come out of the ignition.

I didn't notice anything was amiss until we got home in the garage and attempted to pull the key out. It wouldn't budge. Normally, you have to nudge it in to the steering post just a bit, then turn it backwards to release it -- but this time, it wouldn't push in. Not a smidgen. I tried for nearly ten minutes to wiggle and waffle it into place, but no dice.

The fun part was, since the key wouldn't turn back, the car wouldn't shut off. Until I killed it by releasing the clutch with the car in gear. KLUNK! That stopped it.

Spent the afternoon taking the steering column apart, figuring out how to pull the air bag out without inflating it, how to get the plastic around the steering column off with the key still dangling out, how to uncouple the keylock mechanism from the steering shaft by using my Dremel tool to make channel grooves in the top of the breakaway screw heads which were holding it in place, and then carefully untighten them so in order to free the mechanism.

Took the whole keylock mechanism into the house and tried to figure out how to crack it open, mindlessly fiddling with the key at the same time. Then - click! The key was suddenly able to be pushed in / turned backwards, and it was free.

Huh?

I played with it for another fifteen minutes or so, trying to make it jam up again, but couldn't find the magic combination. Almost called the kids down to have them give it a try, but decided against it. Took the whole thing back out to the car and worked my way backwards until it was all put back the way it had been before (mostly). Hooked up the battery again, checked that it still worked. Then looked at the clock and realized I'd spent four hours fooling around with this nonsense.

I could think of better ways to spend a gorgeous day like today.