Posted By: NAS Backyard
How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 02/19/10 04:06 AM
Working on bringing my 70 Challenger back to life, it ran 10 years ago but the ignition switch is all jacked up. How do I get it out? Looks like it was replaced before. Thanks
Posted By: DAYCLONA
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 02/19/10 04:55 AM
.....Click on the word "attachment" for enlargement
Posted By: NAS Backyard
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 02/19/10 01:41 PM
Thanks alot! I'll print these out. I guess I should repair the damaged piece too. Looks like I'll be making a shopping list for Spring Fling. Thanks again.
Posted By: IMGTX
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 02/19/10 02:58 PM
Excellent Pics Mike.
I will add that the tools in Figures #8 & #9 aren't needed.
For Figure #8 You can usually wiggle the top housing off of the shaft. In some cases place two screwdrivers between the upper & middle housings to gently pry the upper housing off the shaft after removing the snap ring.
For figure #9 use a drift and hammer to tap the pin out.
Those factory tools are great but pretty much unavailable.
The good news is that upper housing is not a really hard piece to get. Mopars from Trucks to A bodies used virtually the same columns. The differences are the shafts and the tubular lower shaft housings in most cases. You can probably get the upper housing easy. Now in 70 the middle housing that holds ignition switch uses a pin to hold the lock cylinder but later years used a spring clip. That may be able to be replaced with any year but the big problem is the lower housings. In 70 they used an ingnition interlock on floor shift cars and if that part is damaged you need a 70 only part. Looks like yours is fine. The damage around the lock cylinder looks like it will be covered by the new lock cylinder so your good.
Posted By: therocks
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 02/19/10 03:07 PM
First thing to do is buy a factory manual.If you are going to work on that its worth its weight in gold.Rocky
Posted By: NAS Backyard
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 03/13/10 10:47 PM
I printed out the instructions and finally got the switch for 27.00. Do I need any specialized pullers or can I use a steering lock plate remover thats used on GM cars to press shaft out of bearing? Looks kind of intimidating but I will take pics as I go.Thanks again DAYCLONA for the great info.
Posted By: DAYCLONA
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 03/14/10 02:57 AM
Tim,...you'll need a puller with slightly longer than usual bolts to remove the ribbed canister from the column to gain access to the column internals, after that a good assortment of general hand tools, a little swearing and cussing should get the jod done, looks daunting at first, but is fairly straight forward, just organize/layout the parts neatly inorder as they came out, incase you forget the order in which to return them
Mike
Posted By: RodStRace
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 03/14/10 04:51 PM
One other tip, when you are laying out all the parts in order and have all the tools spread out, make sure to leave a path out of the car, because you WILL need another tool!!!
You will be suprized at how many tools this takes!
Posted By: screamindriver
Re: How do I remove an ignition switch from a 70 E body? - 07/05/14 04:30 AM
You are correct in your assumption...You don't have to remove the column or the shaft to replace the switch but you'll need to deal with the lock plate in some manner..Take a look and see which parts were discarded then decide...
