ignition switch drain

[RaticalSSR]

Replaced the switch and everything seems to work fine but now I found the battery is dead two days later. There are no lights lit on the dash and the truck had started fine. I know some said if you are a tooth off the battery will drain but I take it that the battery light is lit too on the dash. Confused

[Doug Allen]

Originally Posted by RaticalSSR

Replaced the switch and everything seems to work fine but now I found the battery is dead two days later. There are no lights lit on the dash and the truck had started fine. I know some said if you are a tooth off the battery will drain but I take it that the battery light is lit too on the dash. Confused

Doug, what were the symptoms before you replaced the ignition switch?

[RaticalSSR]

Originally Posted by Doug Allen

Doug, what were the symptoms before you replaced the ignition switch?

I was installing a new shifter when I figured I left the key on to long and fried the ignition switch because when I put the car in park I couldn't remove the key, which I then found out later that it was a shifter postion issue.. So I had my spare and went about installing it. When I removed the old switch with the key in the run position, I was trying to determine what position the teeth were in. When I went to rotated it I drop it on the floor board so then I didn't know if the teeth had moved or not. So I went with what was posted by Dictator for positioning the teeth. Did it and everything work fine. Then yesterday I found the battery dead.

[Doug Allen]

Originally Posted by RaticalSSR

I was installing a new shifter when I figured I left the key on to long and fried the ignition switch because when I put the car in park I couldn't remove the key, which I then found out later that it was a shifter postion issue.. So I had my spare and went about installing it. When I removed the old switch with the key in the run position, I was trying to determine what position the teeth were in. When I went to rotated it I drop it on the floor board so then I didn't know if the teeth had moved or not. So I went with what was posted by Dictator for positioning the teeth. Did it and everything work fine. Then yesterday I found the battery dead.

Did it start before you switched out the ignition switch? If so, it sounds like your battery was on it's way out before the switch swap.

[RaticalSSR]

Originally Posted by Doug Allen

Did it start before you switched out the ignition switch? If so, it sounds like your battery was on it's way out before the switch swap.

New interstate battery last spring. Truck is in for the winter. Charged battery today so now I will see if it drains again.

[Dicktator]

I tent to agree with Doug, battery problem, I would guess.

The reason you couldn't get key out was low power to the solenoid that releases the key. There is also a similar solenoid on the shift arm.

Quick way to check tooth position is the key and column notches meet.

1. Note that key tumbler and column notch meet.

[Johnny B]

Doug
The problem I had was that if you moved the "ears" on the switch ( even with out the key in the switch ) the battery light in the dash would come on,&drain the battery, when i replaced the switch it ,the old switch looked to be in the correct position.
Hope this helps ( the light for the battery is kind of hard to see & not noticeable all the time. Johnny B