[Titomars]

Originally Posted by Gregski

So I like to think of this as an old lazy man sitting in his lazy boy and using a broom stick to turn the light switch off and on located just out of reach on the wall next to him ~ how's that for an analogy

And this my friends is why these vehicles were / are so easy to steal, and I speak from experience... no I do not steal cars, I had one stolen. You see all you have to do is get ahold of that metal rod maybe cut it and push it down and whalla vroom vroom vroom truck is running

You have to look back at cars that still had ignition switches on the dash. Manufacturers were forced to comply with certain anti theft devices and the locking steering column was number one. So the lock is housed in the column to activate the steering wheel lock. The only problem was the modern ignition switch has too many wires attached to fit directly to the cylinder inside the column. So this was the way they worked around the problem and conform to the new laws.

To steal one..... You would not cut the rod. While you can start it that way, it does not bypass the steering wheel lock. The easiest and most effective way to steal a vehicle of the late 60's and 70's is to just use a slide hammer with a screw in the end. Then just thread it directly into the cylinder key slot and pull the cylinder. After that you can use a common screwdriver to twist the sector and work the ignition.