By Tony K
One of these days you may find yourself in this predicament. Put the key in and nothing happens. And I am not talking about a dead battery or other electical problem. This is when you go to turn the key and it just doesn’t move. Hopefully when it does happen you, it’s in your driveway.
I can’t say I was so lucky. When mine died I was at the trailhead after a long day of wheeling. Aired my tires back up, jumped in the rig and nothing. Something has let go on the inside and the only way to fix it is to replace it. But there is no need to panic as removing the ignition key cylinder is not that hard.
First of all, hope that the key will at least get to the “ACC” position. To remove it, it has to be in this spot which is the first position as you turn the key. But prior to this you need to pull a few screws and remove the trim around the column. All of these screws are attached from the bottom by the way. Once all the trim is removed, you can stick an awl in the small hole visible in the picture of a partially removed cylinder. On the right side is the small pin that locks the cylinder in place. This is what you are pushing on through that hole.
That picture is from an 82 but other years the hole for releasing the cylinder may be in a slightly different location. 88-90 I do believe it is on the bottom of the assembly rather than the front like the earlier model. But I will have to go pull some parts on my FJ 62 to confirm this. Sadly the factory manual is pretty vague about the location of the hole
Finally got a chance to pull some parts off my 62 and confirm just where the release button is on my 62. Surprisingly (or not) it is only a short distance away from the release on an earlier 60. In the picture just above my finger is the release. While it looks pretty inaccessible it actually can be accessed with the short end of an allen key and the cylinder will come out without pulling any more parts than the trim that encases the steering column.
