97 Sunfire - Ignition stuck

[phsunfire]

My apologies for my lack of information regarding the specific technical terms:

Yesterday, when I began to start my car I was able to put the key in the ignition, turn it, and the engine turned over just like it normally does.

Several seconds later, the engine died and I attempted to rotate the key back all the way but it would not move past the 'ON' position. I went ahead and turned it forward again, and the engine came on without stalling out this time, but I still can't get the key to turn all the way back off.

The only way I could turn my car off was to put it into first and let it stall out, then disconnect the battery so that it wouldn't run down with all the instrument panel on.

My key pulls straight out of the ignition as well.

Is it possible to just 'rig' the ignition to turn and bypass the need for a key to match up?

I'm on a pretty tight budget and can't afford to take this car into a shop to have it looked at. Any help anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MaryTheGreenSunfire97]

Another problem i ran into....

Hopefully this is the same problem i ran into and it took me a while to figure wtf was going on lol.... The problem maybe the actual shifter in the middle of the car... The knob that you engage to shift the car from gears is maybe sticking.... You can unstick it by pushing in on it repeatedly until it un-sticks. and once you read this i kno your gonna be like what the hell lol but if its sticking you can barely tell until you undo it... I had the same problem mutiple times until realizing what was going on.... So try this and reply and tell me if it worked... THx

 

[2000SunfireGT]

I think this guys car is a 5spd? if so, he won't have that button your speaking of. i know exactly what your talking about. now the ignition being stuck in the on position, i've heard of this problem from sooo many people now, and the only response i've gotten back for a fix was to take it to the dealer and have the ignition replaced. nobody i know has attempted the fix themselves. I would assume you could just replace the ignition yourselve, and just have a set of keys for the door keys, and a set for the ignition. it what they did for my '99 olds alero. makes it easier to warm the vehicle up in the winter anyway cuz you can take the door key out, leave it running and lock the doors so nobody steals it

 

[phsunfire]

97 Sunfire Update

So I was able to remove the housing around the steering column and depress the pin underneath the cylinder so I could remove the ignition lock cylinder entirely.

And while i'm sure this isn't the preferred way to do it - I was able to open up the cylinder and noticed a long metal bar with about 8 springs underneath it. I took those off and reinserted the cylinder and was able to turn it fully, turn on/off the car without problems until today.

Today I got in, drove to the store, and everything was working fine. I got back in to start up the car and now the cylinder is stuck in the lock position and I can't get it to turn for the life of me. Since its locked, the pin I pushed before to get the cylinder out won't depress anymore.

I see a bunch of screws around the steering column that look like they hold everything together, has anyone here had any experience with removing an ignition cylinder when its locked? Am I going to have to remove the screws and basically take everything apart just to get that piece back out again?

I appreciate all the replies so far and any others that come in. I'm going to do what I can with it tomorrow after work and if I can figure something out and no one has come up with any other ideas i'll try to post what I was able to do.