[dna]

Here is my follow-up

I bought a new ignition switch ($50cdn with taxes) and did the swap myself. Sure enough, that was the problem. Truck runs and starts again and all back to normal. Thanks for those that suggested it was the switch.

For anyone interested, below are the steps to do this (once you get the bottom steering column off, it really only takes 10 minutes).

1) take off the bottom steering column cover - as per past posts this is suppose to easy be pulled off, though I found this the hardest step of all. Tok me 45 minutes and I broke two of the clips that holds it to the top cover. I'm not going to give instructions thus how to remove this, but it is suppose to pull off with a little force.

2) no need to take off top cover or any other item now. You will see the bottom end of the ignition switch sticking out from under the key area - you will see the wire adapter with 4 big gauage wires plugged into the old switch. About 1 inch above that, you will see two slot openings, which is where the spring-lock for the switch is located. Get two small screw-drivers or whatever and pushed them into these two openings which will push the spring-lock in and allow you to pull the switch right out (you may also want to use plyers to pull the old switch out once the two spring-locks are being pushed in). There are some other smaller gauge wires running through a clip on the switch, though you do not need to take these off - they will easy become free once you pull out the old switch (or break the clip that holds these other wires to make that a little easier - the old switch is garbage after all).

3) remove the wire harness from the old switch now by pushing the locking tab in and pulling the harness out.

4) once you have the old switch out, get a black marker and mark one of the gears and a mark beside the gear so you now exactly how the old switch was positioned. Now with your finger, move the switch to its starting position and then count which gear was beside the mark you made (mine was in the 5th gear near the middle of the switch).

5) now take the new switch and move it to the starting position and then ensure the gears are aligned to where the old unity was. Now plug in the wire harness and feed the switch back up into its housing until the two spring-locks engage.

6) Done, just put the bottom steering column back on, and put some glue where you broke the clips when originally taking it off.





3) Once the old switch is