Quote Originally Posted by tim eh? View Post
... the stiff wire worked well for me i did it in -20'c it was easier than hitting the snooze button... a paper clip is pretty wimpy tho... i used a piece of battery cable wire iirc, takes a couple tries to get the feel of where the tab is inside the hole but once you get it the barrel should slide out with a light pull on the key. i think you ought to disconnect the neg at the battery first but i don't know if it matters...
No need to disconnect the battery to pull the ignition barrel out.

I tried various diameter paper clips for hours with no luck.

The guys at the dealer told me to use welding tip cleaners as they're rather stiff. Tried that for hours with no luck.

And I had the wire dead on in the proper spot to catch that tab. I had a brand new barrel sitting there to look at to find out exactly which spot to have the key turned to so that I caught the tab properly.

Only way I got the old barrel out was to cut the thing apart and pull it out piece by piece. You cut that retaining ring in two, then you can pull the guts of the barrel out. Once the guts are out then you can pull the retaining tab down from the inside with a screwdriver (in essence doing what the stiff wire is supposed to do). But doing that destroys the barrel.

Which is why I figured out that it'd be easier to cut the slot in the steering lock to press the retaining tab from the outside with a screwdriver rather than pull it from the inside with the wire.

Good thing too as after I installed the new barrel into my old lock I found that my problem wasn't with the barrel. So I ended up having to take the new barrel out of my old steering lock. Which is why I put a slot into my new steering lock as well to facilitate any future barrel removals.