The contacts inside the electrical part of the ignition switch can become pitted so that they no longer make a good contact everyt time. When it gets really bad is can cause all kinds of hair pulling problems. Luckly they are cheap to get and easy to install.
Tools you will need to have.
 | Slip a screw driver behind the cover on the steering wheel and pry it off. |
| Remove the 24MM nut that holds the steering wheel in place. ONce the nut is removed, you should be able to pull the steering wheel right off. |  |
 | Remove the screws from the lower piece of trim and pull it free. |
| Remove the 3 screws from the turn signal switch. |  |
 | Undo the electrical connections from the turnsignal and wiper switches. Since you've undone the negative cable from the battery, you can use a small screw driver to help push the connections off of the terminals without blowing any fuses or starting up the wipers. Now you can remove the turn signal switch and wiper arm switch. |
| With the allen key, remove the cap screw from the clamp on the steering colum housing. |  |
 | With the pliers, grip the lock washer and rotate it back and forth on the steering colum. You want to clamp down on the lock washer enough to flex it a little, not crush it. Now read the next part real carefully..... |
| When you remove that lock washer, you will want to put the nut back onto the steering colum. I forgot to mention this to my wife when she was removing the lockwasher. About the time I remembered what happened to me a couple of years ago when I did this on my GTI, the lockwasher shot out and hit her in the face (just like it did me). |  |
 | Set the lock washer, spring and horn contact ring off to the side. Put the key in and turn it so the steering wheel lock is undone and you are now ready to start pulling the steering colum housing out. Wiggle it around while pulling on it, it can be a snug fit, but not hard to remove. When you get it out some, undo the electrical connection from the ignition switch. |
| With the steering colum housing free, remove the phillips screw from the back of the ignition switch. then pull the plastic housing out. |  |
 | Drop your new ignition switch in place and secure it with the screw. |
| Wiggle the steering colum housing back into place, reconnect the ignition switch harness. Then slip the top part of the steering colum cover in place. |  |
 | You can now put the horn contact ring, spring and lock washer back onto the steering colum. A long deep well socket or bit of tube can be used to help tap the lock washer back down onto the steering colum. My wife had to also use a large box wrench since the socket wasn't long enough. Also, do don't have to whack the crap out of it. Just a few good taps should be all you need. |
| Clamp the steering colum housing back down with the cap screw. |  |
 | Slip the wiper switch back over the steering colum.... |
| ... then the turn signal switch. Secure with the 3 screws. Do not overtighten these. The steering colum housing that the screws go into can strip out pretty easy. Just get then nice and snug. |  |
 | Connect the wiring harnesses back to the turn signal and wiper switches. |
| Line up the lower cover for the steering colum put the screws back in. |  |
 | Line your steering wheel back up, slip the washer on and tighten up the nut. What my wife did was to drive the car straigh into the garage so that the steering wheel was level before she removed it. If you want (and you are not getting this from me), you can not tighten the steering wheel down, go for a little test drive down a flat level road, pull the steering wheel off and return it to level postion on the fly, then tighten it back down. |
Why should you send a postcard? Because it is cheap to do and as we all know, the US Post Office is funding it's Super Muntant Army Project with fees from postcards stamps. I would really like to see a Super Muntant Army deliever my mail in the near future.
Thank you.
