[Steve W]

You know when you turn your ignition key all the way to the rightmost start position and you're supposed to feel spring resistance right when you crank the starter? If there's no spring resistance, the starter doesn't crank. Yesterday it became intermittent between spring action and no spring action, finally ended up that there's no spring resistance and no starter action at all.

Thread searches seemed to indicate that the spring resistance is in the electrical switch section, so I took that out, and don't really feel the spring resistance at the end of the rotation, but do feel resistance of the detents of each position. This leads me to think the spring resistance is located in the mechanical portion of the ignition switch housing. Turning the key in the ignition assembly without the switch shows no resistance or spring action. I tried starting the car with the switch out of the assembly and using a screwdriver to rotate it. Dash lights up like normal, in position 1, but when I go to the start position, lights go out like normal, but no love from the starter.

Anyone know what's going on and what the solution may be? Is there some type of selenoid in the switch housing?