forerunner_xlg

89 jeep Cherokee

My vehicles is on and I cannot turn it off. The ignition will only move in the direction to turn the vehicle on.

I don't know what to do. Any king of help will be great!

BlueRidgeMark

Are you saying that it's currently running, and you need an emergency way to shut it off?

If so you have a couple of choices. One is to disconnect the air box, and cover the throttle body intake with something that will seal the opening but not get sucked in.

Another option is to pull the coil wire. Use rubber gloves or you might get zapped. Or a pair of insulated pliers.

forerunner_xlg

I managed to remove key from ignition. The car is still running.

Turbo X_J

Pull the coil wire, just don't get zapped. If you are a Nancy you could also just pull the fuel pump relay.
Then replace the ignition switch, the switch not the lock cylinder.

DFlintstone

On the left inner fender, by the air cleaner is a ceramic resistor with orange wires. Pull the rear one and that will cut power to the fuel pump. Then disconnect a battery cable, the ground one, or whichever you can get off. (to keep from draining the battery).

forerunner_xlg

The orange cable trick worked!
Thank you

DFlintstone

Figured it would. I'll take a look at the FSM and see what I can find on that. (mine's the same I think). The IGN switch is on-top of the steering column down lower, then the Key/tumbler works it from above.

DFlintstone

Guess you pull the steering wheel, (with a rented steering wheel puller), then you can push in the deal that releases the tumbler.

Or the switch is the issue. I suppose a guy could loosen or remove the switch to see if the binding is she switch, or the upper stuff.

Ours has an "adjustment", mounting the switch. It moves up or down a little, needs to be positioned so when you turn it to start, it starts.

Fred/N0AZZ

If you do need to change it all out you can have the switch re-keyed to match your old key so one key works everything.

Turbo X_J

^
The oldies use a GM steering column with the lock cylinder and ignition switch separate connected by a metal rod. Now that I think about it, if the switch is loose on the column maybe thats why the OP couldn't shut the engine off.

DFlintstone

Yer a fart smeller, I mean smart feller. Clever observation. Guess he says the key will only move in one direction......looks like the rod pushes to "start". The switch may have moved down and stuck there.

forerunner_xlg

I was able to figure out how to fix most of the problem. There's is 2 mechanical levers on the surface of the steering wheel. One of them moves out when key turns to start and when key is turned to stop the long piece of metal pulls in.

The rod never pulled in. So when I forced the key with pliers it broke the connection. A temporary fix is to tie a string to the lever. And pull the rod in synched with the motion of key. It helps if the key is slightly after rod being pulled.

DFlintstone

Whew..mine is a mess, but works. (note to Don, carry string). Any further info or photos might be nice.