you will potentially need:
- jewlers screwdriver set, mainly a few tiny flatblades around 2-3mm in width.
- tweezers
- contact cleaner/brasso
- 1000 grit sandpaper, the dry body stuff that halfords supplies is good
- a lot of patience and steady hands
To start, remove the lower cowling an then locate the ignition barrel, on the electrical side, remove the socket carefully. Once done, check around the back of the electronic side, you will find a small "negi-drive/Flatblade) grub screw. Undo this and the unit should just pull out, and look like this:
Looking round the unit, you will notice there is a spring clip at the top end where it looks like the key should insert (black ring):
remove the spring clip and be careful as this thing is spring loaded and can pop open at any point.
from here, inspecting the unit, you will see 2 slim slotted sections for lugs, if it hasnt popped open already, slide a very small flatblade up and under, this should potentially pop open.
At this point i would be working as close over your tray as possible, if you havent been already. As soon as you release the lugs, this thing should want to pop open as it is spring loaded and they are all under tension, which is released as soon as those lugs are free. Be aware, there is a small Approx 1mm ball bearing that will become dislodged as soon as the spring tension has been released. I recommend using kitchen towel in your tray to prevent bouncing off.
next you can freely spread out the pieces, i chose to spread mine out in a top-to-bottom style format, you should have; Spring clip, Cap/Cover, a small brass pin mounted atop a spring, a similar size spring to the one the brass pin sits in (not shown), the stator (for lack of a better terminology), (not shown, 2 matching springs and a brass spring), Ball bearing, Y arm, Power ring and finally, the black plastic piece called the Rotor in this case. as below. some of my components stayed in place, but you will see them in later pictures
on the back of the Y arm is a contact pad which will need cleaning, you can use brasso or 1000 grit sandpaper. I cheated and used ultra fine diamond files! there is also a similar contact pad on the black plastic section (rotor) that holds the plug.
you will also need to clean the power ring, this distributes power/acts as a common contact throughout the operation of the key.
once you are satisfied that everything is clean and grott free, it will be time for ASSEMBLY
Firstly, i suggest we take the stator and assemble that back into the cap. There will be 2 springs and the brass pin, as per the middle piece in the picture
Once together should look like so; the brass pin mounted on a spring, and the spring/pin pair inserted into the rectangular slot, a second lonely spring placed into the spring shaped hole.
I found that the easiest thing to do with the upcoming steps is place it inside the cap, the brass spring should line up with the slim slots in the cap. then put it into place. If you look at the top of the cap and find you see brass through either of the 2 little peep holes, you have the Stator 180 degrees out of position. but you may wish to struggle in your own way too, im open to finding little knacks. it should look like this:
next, insert the Y arm, I assume you never removed the springs from inside the stator, for their positions see above. they need to be the same size and height. inserting the Y arm there is a small slot that the pair of arms slot into:
place the ball bearing atop the brass spring:
next, balance the power ring on top of the bearing, tab facing into the cap, there is a handy slot that this tab sits in, i recommend setting the tab into that and using that to place and rest the power ring onto the bearing:
once all the fiddly bits are done, its time to put the rotor on. i found that the middle of the teeth should roughly sit where the long section of the Y arm sits (it should point another 90 degrees in this picture if you can imagine where it sits within the cap).
line everything up and put it together, this is where you need to be absolutely sure that you have assembled everything correctly, insert the rotor into the cap, trying not to knock the power ring off of the ball bearing. you will need to add pressure to get the rotor to engage with both lugs, from here you need to add the spring clip back onto the top or you risk having everything fall back out! check it with a nice flat skinny key, or a suitable utensil that is long and flat, you do not want to risk damaging the channels as the key does not fit.
Mechaically operating the switch, you should feel 2 somewhat definitive clicks and then a springy resistance on the 3rd, it will give a firm stop feeling if you go too far in one or the other direction. the spring-back when engaging the starter is in this unit too, try it if you dare.
electrically, pin 30 will give no continuity at rest. on 1st click it should give continuity between pin 30 and pin 75. on the second position you should get continutity between pin 30, 75 and 15. then lastly, if you dare to try it out of the car, pin 30, 75, 15 and then 50 will all give continuity in position 3 that has a lot of spring resistance. or test the unit back in the barrel for ease of testing and trying to pretend to be an octopus.
I hope this helps someone, or at least provides extra information on components inside our cars.
