- Ford locks have this special pin sitting on its leavers which will settle down only if correct key is inserted.
Do you know that?
All ford locks having this key has a special mechanism in which a hardened cylindrical pin is placed on top of levers. This pin settles down only if correct key is inserted in the lock. This system helps in preventing the theft by allowing only legitimate key to work as even a small deviation from original key profile will lift this pin up and will prevent the lock from opening from any key other than original one.
This mechanism also prevent forcible entry in the car as all the force applied on lock levers is directly transferred to this pin to lift it up instead of rotating the lock.
After careful inspection, we found that problem was with original key itself. Original key was worn-out so it was lifting the pin up. So we made a duplicate key from original one which finally solved are problem of jammed lock.
New key was able to rotate easily in the lock cylinder with-out lifting the pin up but when we tried the old key, problem persisted.
In this special case the problem was due to worn out key, but we have found that same problem of jammed lock can also arise due to other factors.
- Duplicate key copied from original one
Common factors jamming this lock
| Rusting on levers | Can be repaired by cleaning the levers |
| Foreign particle in lock | Sometimes dust or other particles enter the lock causing this problem. This can be corrected by thoroughly cleaning the lock from inside |
| Sticky levers | Sometimes moisture enters the lock which prevents independent movement of levers. You can take-out individual levers and clean it with a file. |
Hello Yogesh thanks for this informative description. I have a similar problem with my ford falcon 2004 BA. But my key was turning well in ignition switch the problem was that the engine did not start at position III ( start). key needed to be forced harder beyond position 3 to get the engine started.
I removed the key barrel after turning to position I and pressing the pin. the barrel came out easily.
then I used a screw driver and turned the ignition switch internal mechanism by hand to check if the problem was with the barrel or the internal components. I was able to turn ignition on ( position II- all the lights came on dash) but the engine didn’t start at position III ( I thought the problem is in the internal componets)
Unfortunately the I turned the internal mechanism back to “0” position and now it is stuck on position “0” the mechanism doesnt allow me to turn it back to position “I” to fix the barrel.
Can you please tell me how to release the internal switch components from “0” position????