Ford Ignition Removal Tip

As a professional locksmith technician with many years of experience in the field sometimes I find replacing vehicle's ignition can be a hard task. Depending on year, make and model of the vehicle, some ignitions require the disassemble of steering column trim components. However, even when this step is done, there is still the part of taking the ignition switch out which can be a hassle by itself especially if there is no key available. In such situation, most locksmith technicians know that the ignition switch would need to be drilled or pick. With picking, it may or may not work depending on the type of ignition and the number of cuts which leaves drilling. However, in a situation when you just need to make a new key and not replace the ignition, drilling may not be a suitable solution.

I got a call the other day from a customer who lost the key to his 96 Ford F-150. Since I just got recently a new pick tool set for ignitions and was eager to try it out, I decided to accept the job and was heading to the customer's location. For some of the vehicles manufactured in the late 90's there is a code that can be purchased by giving only the vehicle's VIN number. Not only it cost significant amount of money, but most likely there wasn't a code available in the database to pull for that particular Ford model I was about to service.

Once I got to the customer's location, I went ahead and took apart the steering column trim that needed to be removed in order to reach for the ignition cylinder. The next step was picking the cylinder open, so I could remove it in order to make a new key. After 10 minutes of many attempts picking the Ford 10 cut ignition I finally gave up and decided to call a fellow Seattle locksmith of mine for advice. He mentioned I should use a small thin metal wire with a hook on the end similar to a pick tool and try to remove the wafer springs one at a time. After the springs will be out, he said I should tap the housing gently around the cylinder until it will be unlocked and available to be removed.

I must say, I was a little skeptical at first about whether this method will work or not, but to my surprise the cylinder was in my hands after only a couple of minutes working on it. Once the ignition cylinder was out, I was able to decode the wafers and make a new key followed by reloading the springs I released. This method pretty much saved the job as I did not have to drill or damage the ignition in order to remove it.