Steering column problem?!?

[Steve O.]

Good news bad news:

$3200.oo later, tranny shop has my rebuilt tranny and new t-case back in my '94 6.5 Sub 4x4, but they just called to tell me something is now broken in my steering column!

Guy says that after he drove it in to the shop from a test drive he basically couldn't get the key to turn off (they had to pull the plug on the motor at the ECM, I think he said), and now the wheel won't turn.

They drove it earlier on a test drive with no problems, so this is an out of the blue issue.

They're taking the column apart to diagnose, but can anyone help me figure out what could have gone wrong to make that happen now? There has never been any problem with the ignition cylinder or steering column on this rig. What could they have done to bust it while they were putting the tranny back in? Or is there a problem with these things that I don't know about that just happened to crop up while they had it?

Thanks guys, as always.

[Hye]

If its a tilt column, they are problematic. Look for other posts on this subject.
Mine started to feel "loose" months in advance of lock-up. One failure was on my S-10 gasser and the other was on the '89 6.2L. The '94 is still OK at 284K. If I'd fixed them quickly, it might not have been so bad, but I knew I didn't want to keep the tilt columns. In both cases, the parts were more $ than a used, no-tilt column. Used ones came with their lock and one key.

[Steve O.]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Just got off the phone with the shop and it turns out it was a bum lock cylinder, apparently (according to them) a side effect of the busted turn signal cancellation cam, which I knew about. One of their guys said he's seen it before where a spring from the turn signal side can jam up the lock. Taking them at their word, and the fact that its only about a $100.00 fix, makes it a bit more ok. Hoping to get this truck back tomorrow so I can make the Northeast Rendevous up here with Charlie.