I thought I had spent all the money necessary to get my rig running smoothly. Then yesterday when I went to start my truck to get home from work, nothing happened.

Turns out, my ignition switch assembly in the steering column is shot. The key is all wobbly when you put inside, and it's contacts are shot. On top of that it turns out that the knucklehead I bought the truck from put a cheap pieced together positive battery cable and most of it is all corroded.

I really hate it when people do cheap fixes . . . and I mean cheap by "not doing it right", as in with the right kind of wiring, cable, etc. It always means that it will have to get fixed later, and depending on what it is, could cause more problems.

I don't have time to mess with this myself, so it's going to sit at the shop I have been using. Great guys there. I'm getting a generous break on the price, but it's still expensive. The part for the switch is $250, not to mention labor. And then there's the battery cable. Since I can't drive the truck home, I'm going to let it sit at the shop for a week or two until I can pay to get it fixed. Good thing I have some freelance jobs on the side to help out.

I'm curious how many other guys have had this same problem. I've heard from both the guy who towed my truck (who also owns a first and second gen 4runners) and the mechanic, who's fixed many 4runners, that this is common in older Toyota's. Mine has almost 290,000 miles.

On the bright side, I figure I should never have to replace the ignition switch again . . .

It's pretty common, I have 2 keys. One for the doors and one for the ignition. I am sure there must be someone around your area with a used one for not too much money, It's not too difficult to install. Probably an hour or so. Though it sounds that like me you don't have too much free time to do that sort of thing.

Yeah, this is a case of timing. I am beginning to see why it's important for me to put myself in the crucible of learning and learn how to fix some of this stuff. I realize it's much simpler than newer cars/trucks in it's design, but I guess that some things that are what I consider "safety" items, in what could happen if I don't fix properly, that I may rely on shops to fix.

This is one of those things that I think I may have to just bite the bullet. However, I may look into other options.

I need to replace some other stuff at some point, like p/s pump and oil o-ring adapter that I may have a friend help me with . . .

The ign sw assy has 2 diff parts, the part that holds the key and the actual switch/contact assy. One part is easy to replace and the other a PITA, but I forget which, it's been several years since I did it.

Yeah, I need both the switch and lock cylinder with contacts, that's the bugger . . .