Purchased as an option by my father, there is a steering wheel lock down by my left knee. I have on several occasions deeply scraped my knee and once broke the key off. Hell of a time getting a lock smith to both remove and then find a replacement key.
Can I plasma cut this off and just use the in dash key. A thief cold prolly easily disable this anyway. I use the club, a fuel pump cutoff switch and it has stick shift which deters most crackheads.
gerard,
can you post a pic of the lock in Q?, anything can be cut off, just cover what needs to be, safety googles on and blast away…i have a on/off switch for fuel pump & center dead point for twin fuel tanks, an old trick i did with a classic i had was a 2 way toggle, one side fed pos+ to ign/coil, when parked i’d flick the toggle to other side to supply NEG- power to coil, so even if they tried to hot wire it - the hot wire would burn out, if you forget to switch back to pos & crank, nothing would happen & no damage to electrics, i have article on my site library about Adding a hidden switch that must be pressed to enable the vehicle to be started>>>> http://www.jaguar-wiring-schematics.info/tech%20info%20pages_files/Relay%20Guide.pdf
There was a silver surround cover which is now off as we were trying to remove the broken key. There are several positions to this switch and I really have to jiggle the key while lifting it up to get into the proper position.
We have a fuel shut off and a switch on the GTO that kills the engine immediately when activated. But will allow the engine later to be cranked over with no starting results.
I will read your article. I suppose I can use the wheel of death ( very fast air powered cut off wheel) or a plasma cutter. What I don’t want of course is the locking mechanism to activate while driving after cutting this off. My manual notes this item but gives no specifics on removal.
that looks like it even deters the owner to drive it, what model is it on? if you cut it off as high up as you can go - the rest of the internals should fall out, without see the whole unit it appears you might be able to access the internals at the bottom & side caps.
1966 MK2 3.8
Gerard
Hi Gerard…the steering lock unit is held in place by 2 shear bolts…basically a bolt that you tighten and the hex head snaps off…a feature to prevent theft by someone unbolting it…typical way to remove the lock is drill out the remaining bolt…Steve…have a read here https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xj6-xj12-series-i-ii-iii-16/removing-steering-lock-168704/
steve mentioned sheer bolts which is most likely, what i’ve done in the past with steering locks with bolts of that type is drop the steering column to allow enough access to use a hack saw blade and cut a slot in the bolt head, tedious but it works, then you sell the lock to pay for the dressing for your skinned knuckles…
Would it be possible to get a Dremel tool with a cutting disc in there to cut a slot?
If your lucky the shear bolts may be loose and long nose pliers will unfo them…Steve
How about the wheel of death? (Pneumatic cut off wheel)? Plasma cutter, gasoline, dynamite!!
May I presume that the two wires on the back would then be routed to the dash key hole?
There are five male terminals on the back of the lock but only two female spade terminals. What were they thinking?
Gerard
I put a 5" steel cutting blade on a 4-1/2" angle grinder (had to modify the guard for the larger blade), and now I just cut steel off instead of having to grind through it.
I also have one of these blades, larger, for my gear-drive circular saw for bigger steel cutting jobs.
Read all of the valuable posts above. Tried drilling out the sheer bolts to no avail. We did lower the steering column. VERY IMPORTANT: keep track of all of the spacers between the bolts and the securing nuts. We had four wide spacers and two thinner one bolt each spacers. When we were upside down and backward we were remiss at this point and had to wing it by guessing there were an even number on both sides. The steering wheel became off center and it was only on re-assembly that is was back to its original position. (It’s been a bit off center for years, although it steers straight as an arrow) That will be an relatively easy fix!
I will call the metal piece that goes around the steering column a “clamshell” as it is snugly clamped with those two shear bolts.The gap between the two is a hairs breadth and we elected not to pound the S&*T out of the gap to release the mechanism. Thinking hard we elected the Saw Zall (sp)with a fine tooth metal blade. Donning safety glasses and a bright light, the beautiful Angela took the tool to the key shaft. Five minutes of constant sawing and being careful of the accumulating friction heat, she cut clear through the shaft. Please see pictures below. Now we have to lengthen the wires to reach the key hole on the dash. The ignition is activated when those two wires are touched together. I do have the original key for that which was supplied with the car when purchased at the factory.
Examine the pictures carefully and you’ll understand how this works. Turning the key activates a push rod which in turn pushes two pins and a rectangular slider into the steering column. My picture only shows one of the two pins as things got lost at the end. Examine the cut off end of the locking barrel and you’ll understand the mechanics of this piece. Those very observant will notice that the clam shell still remains on the steering column. Another fun project, perhaps we’ll buy a plasma cutter!
Gerard
As you know we cut off thee optional steering wheel locking device shown above. There were just two wires connected to the lock although there were several male spade terminals on the back. We are extending those wires to the in dash key lock. There are three (3) wires on the back of that key. That key has NEVER been functional so somewhere these wires terminate within a wiring loom. I plan on pulling them off and finding which ones have conductivity with the key on.
Does this sound reasonable Just not sure where they all would have gone initially. I do have the fsm if all else fails. Thanks
