Hi folks,

My key barrel failed last night and I didn't have time to fix it before a hospital appointment this morning.

I had a proper vehicle starter button and a old school rocket launch switch in the shed so I cut off all the wires at the back of the busted key barrel and wired in the switch and start button.

Got it started and running with the yellow continuous and the red ignition and start wires, but there were a heap of smaller wires that I don't know the purpose of. Black appears to be an earth feed, but what is purple and the other little ones? (never mind.. I just realised I can use my multimeter on my mates BA to find out what those wires need to get and when.


Decided to keep the rocker switch and start button.. Just need to change the steering lock and set up the key barrel so I don't have to turn the key all the way to start to disengage smartshield.

I can and will get a whole replacement assembly very cheaply so it will work either way. But I kinda like the push button idea too. I'm also planning a biometric addition too.. later on I will be able to get in the car and push my thumb to a fingerprint reader to turn on the ignition. based on a usb fingerprint reader and a rasberry pi and some custom code.

I'd like to just insert the key to disengage PATS and then click a
Switch and push the button to start.. Right now I have to insert the key and turn it to start before I can press the start button should not be all that hard to do and will be something different.

Right now I'd settle for getting the little wires that don't relate to accessories, ignition or start hooked in



Regards

Frank

Last edited by frankieh on Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.

why not buy a new or used ignition from wreckers or ford?

Because it's an expensive price for a crap design that could happen again at any time.

my mate who wrecks BA/BF's says he could sell a dozen a week if he could get hold of that many. He has half of the perth taxi's showing up for his place looking for three things mainly.. diffs.. bonnet cables and steering columns....


I will probably do that anyway when one comes in.. but I kinda like the push button start and launch switch and for security I still have the PATS system.

I've heard lots of stories online about people putting AU3 switch mech into the BA housing, but I've not seen a AU3 switch.. so don't know how much cred to give it.

really.
you are still bodging s**t up I see.

I see someone in my ignore list has posted something.. rather than waste my time reading some inane pointless comment that will neither help nor serve any useful purpose whatsoever I'll just say that I don't read or respond to trolls.. Try the holden forums...

ok. I picked up a free territory barrel.. it was free because the key barrel was in the lock and nobody had a key to get it to accessories so the barrel couldn't be removed. (normally you put the key in accessories and push a pin on the side to get the barrel out.. but if you can't put it in accessories it won't come out. The Territory column looked like mine at a glance I couldn't see any difference so I decided to give it a go.

I couldn't find anything online while searching for how to remove a key barrel without the key online.. So I took a shot myself.. after snapping a couple of drills trying to drill it out.. I decided to go big.

I dug out my 9 inch angle grinder and cut the whole domed head off the barrel.


The metal dome is much thicker and more solid than it appears.. but no challenge to a giant angle grinder.. (probably not a significant challenge to a little one either really)

After the head came off.. It still looked like a solid metal plate.. but I put a center punch to the top of the round key barrel shape in the middle and a 3mm metal plate slowly turned around and came out... (I could probably have used a corkscrew at that point too) From there all the actual key lock mechanism practically fell out and I put a flat blade in and was able to easily turn the lock.. (and thereby remove it.)



Anyway, I discovered to my dismay that once I put my barrel in that this lock had the same problem mine did. the tab was missing and there was no spring return. I decided to attempt the repair again.

I took the broken remains of the old tab off using my dremmel.. and drilled a hole in the middle of where it was.. (Turns out that is a mistake.. you should put the hole exactly where the start of the tab was.. otherwise you don't get enough spring pressure.



Then I threaded a screw in.. the metal base is about 3mm thick so the thread is quite solid... Then I took the screw back out, ground the head off and shaped the top of it into a Tab and put it back in the hole... with some lock-tight to keep from turning and a smidge of superglue around the base front and back because I'm paranoid.


The end result is a very strong steel tab to replace the super thin diecast factory job. Then I reassembled the lock mech with ball bearings, springs and contact plate in the same way they came out and bobs your uncle.. a perfect working lock with spring tension and my own key barrel in.

Much to my display (again) I discovered that while the whole column head on a BA/BF looks identical to the Territory one (and it is at the top). The tube section on the Territory one is much shorter than the BA one... And there is no easy way to swap the tubes over.. so I'd fixed a lock I couldn't use.

Pulled it apart again because I needed the lock back plate with the contacts on it.. and I pulled my old column apart again.. I had already drilled this one a fortnight before so I could not redrill it in the perfect spot as the holes would be to close together.. so I just moved my ground tab in and assembled it all again...

Only thing I did different this time, is that I used the dremmel to ground some small notches in the bakeligtht of the lock back (where the wires come out) so I had more locations to crimp the metal in to stop the lock falling apart again.. this was necessary because this lock had been crimped on at least 4 separate occasions (once before I owned the car I think) and the crimp areas in the metal were looking pretty rough.. Now it has 8 crimp areas and it won't ever fall out by itself again.

It works and is in the car and mostly fully functional.. The only issue is that I didn't drill the tab hole where the start of the tab used to be.. but in the middle.. so the spring pressure isn't quite enough to take it all the way back to the ignition position.

No biggie though because I can get as many stuffed ignitions as I want for free.. and I've now practiced enough that the next one will be at least as good as the territory one I fixed but couldn't use..

I'm putting this here because I want to help people with a couple of things they should know and the info wasn't available when I goggled for it.
1. How to pull out a key barrel without a key to put it into accessories.
2. A territory column/lock mechanism is nearly identical to a Falcons, but will NOT fit in a BA/BF or vice versa due to the length of the shaft.
3. You don't have to pay lots of money to replace a column with another one that has the same shonky die cast tab as the one you are replacing.. you can fix them and they will be stronger than the original. (I know this because I didn't come up with the process, it was a story on Fordforums that I copied.. and there is now a company selling repaired columns for a few hundred.)