Need help! can't get lock cylinder out to remove steering lock

[arpenn]

Can someone give me some suggestions. I am trying to remove the lock cylinder from our 1990 Honda Civic Si. I have the service manual and it shows to turn the key to I and then depress the lock button on top and slide the cylinder out. Well that doesn't work. My dad, my brother, and I have all tried and we can't get it to come out. Is there a trick to this? We were trying to remove the steering lock, but we can't do that until we get the lock cylinder out. Please help!

[gran racing]

Before doing this, confirm that this will work on your Civic.


Most Honda owners I know don't actually remove the lock. Instead, what is done is using a sharp drill, drill into the area that looks like a button. The key is to do this very slowly. The first time I did it, I went too far and had to wire the start using a switch on the dash. The second time it worked perfectly and took less than five minutes.

Post this question with my general summary on www.HondaTech.com to see if it'll work for your car. If you do some searched there, you should be able to find detailed instructions and pictures on how to do it.

[R2 Racing]

Dave's right, don't bother removing all of that as it can be done with it installed. On the bottom side of the lock cylinder is a round silver "button" looking plug, about 1" in diameter. In the middle of that is a recessed area. Right at that point, drill through the "button" with about a 1/4" drill bit. Do it slowly as you don't want to break through too far. Once you've done that, you should be able to see the end of the spring that engages the steering lock. Reach in the hole with a needle-nose, grab that bastard, and rip it out. Viola! No steering lock!

[arpenn]

OK that sounds easy enough. But the more I think about it I think I would like to get rid of the keys and just have a toggle and push button starter. If I do do that I can just remove the whole ignition assembly which would disable the steering lock. Can anyone tell me how I should wire it. My stock ignition has several wires going to it and I am sure that some of those wires probably power things like the ecu, fuel pump, etc. Your help is much appreciated.

[gran racing]

I really suggest you keep the lock in place. As I mentioned, with my first car it was hard wired like you're talking about and while it looked cool, I wished I had the lock on it still. It sure made taking the car much easier! Keep using the key for now and later on after transporting the car to a few races, if you decide to wire the start you can always do it later. It'll be much harder to reverse it once done.

[arpenn]

Security really isn't an issue. The car is in a locked garage unless it is at the track in which case my brother, my dad, and myself are with the car. We talked about it and we want to go with the toggle switch and push button start. We may regret it and we plan to do it in such a way that we can reverse it. Dave you said you did this to your first car, do you remember how you hooked the wiring up? Anyone else that has made this modification?

Thanks