Key wouldn't come out (1 Viewer)

[rule303]

My wife called me today at work and said the key would not come out of the ignition. She said she tried everything and nothing she did could coax it to come out.
I told her not to worry, that I'd just put the word out on this forum and we'd have an answer soon. I told her to try everything I could think of like turning the steering wheel, making sure it was in park, and pushing the key in and turning it at the same time. No go, she said. Now this vehicle has left her stranded twice and I knew that she was getting upset and I had better not tell her my sneaking suspicion that it was something boneheaded she was doing.
She drove it home. She called later and said if she took off the parking brake the key would come out. When I got home I tried both mine and her keys and it worked fine. Now she was really coming unglued and got mad when I just smiled. "Honestly, it wasn't working!!!", she said. I looked down and noticed a large paper clip wedged in the slot where the shifter moves. It wouldn't go completely into park because of that paper clip! Does anyone know of any reason the parking brake lever would have any impact on removing the key?
She thinks she fixed it with the parking brake. I say it was just a conincidence.

 

[Jukelemon]

coincidence. The only circuit the PB is tied to is the DT running lights i.e. if I recall, you can deactivate the running lights by applying the PB just enough...I am pretty sure this is the case. There was a thread on it a while back.

In tandem, a similar thing happened to me in my LC. I had just wired a trailer up for a hunting trip and by accident (of course) one of my connections were tied into the wrong wire. The result was that I blew a fuse on my LC under the "parking lights" tag. Well, this fuse is tied into the ignition circuit somehow i.e. when you turn on the vehicle, if this fuse is blown/circuit open, the LC will not start. I did not know I had blown a fuse at the time of trying to restart my LC and I was going crazy thinking all kinds of things and wouldn't you know, and as usual, it was my fault and a simple solution.

Just a FYI

 

[rule303]

That's what I thought. Better not show this to her though. She's all proud of herself that she "fixed it".