Rekey the doors?

 

The thought crossed my mind. I'm really not sure what is rekeyable anymore. Are there key cylinders available that can be recoded? Door locks? I really don't know. I suspect I'll figure it out eventually but recoding the door locks is an option.

 

And for the record, the shop charged me $116.27 for the ignition lock cylinder (just the part). I know for a fact they got that cylinder from NAPA. That cylinder lists for $63.99 and I suspect the shop gets a pretty juicy discount off that. So they more than double charge the customer on parts.

Just another reason to work on your own vehicles.

 

Buy you some new door lock cylinders; get them rekeyed; then swap them for your old ones.

Or just carry two keys.

(I'm not one to ask; I have a rekeyed set in a box, and have for three years now, but carry THREE keys due to the doors not even matching each other ... )

Four if you count the glove box key ...

RwP

 

hahahahaha!!!!

 

I had a similar issue with my 96.... would sometimes start in Park, but usually not. I had to wiggle the shifter to find Neutral. Looked at everything at least twice. Some things 3-4 times. everything looked fine. I bought a new NSS about 4 months ago and never put it in, started working as it is supposed to about that time. I have heard that the "shoe" on the rooster comb within the transmission that operates the shift valve on the valve body sometimes breaks off. This "shoe" is what activates the NSS. They offer a kit to fix, but need to drop the valve body to do so. Not a big deal, I rebuilt that trans 70K ago so I know what that would involve.
I was under the truck fixing other things and thought I would adjust the linkage. I had to heat the bolt on the adjustable end of the link, and wound up melting the nylon bushing out at the bottom connection by the adjuster. Noa that that was just hanging I reached over to the lever on the trans and put it in park from underneath and then lowered the truck/ tried to start.... It started right up!
The problem? The shift lever on the trans "itself" was somehow loose and rotating on the shift shaft. Made me feel like an idiot.

then after I got the new bushings and the linkage back together it decided to crank/not start. Different unrelated problem there.

Oh. and the key switch that shop raked you over for, there is only 1 thing that can happen to that.... was your key switch loose and sloppy when you tried to start? there's a pot metal ring on the end that likes to break out on them. there is nothing "electrical" about the keyed portion of an ignition switch on these. I've had that pot metal ring bust out on 2 of my Dakotas over the years. I've had 5-6, 87-96 Dakotas.

 

Sure glad I didn’t have to go thru all those gymnastics. The interior NSS pawl busting does not sound like it would be fun.

This new switch/cylinder I have is a bit finicky. Key has a small sweet spot that it will let me pull the key out. Also, that last bit of travel where the engine starts to crank over is smallish too. Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be but that isn’t the way it’s been for a long time. Maybe the 28 years rounded over all the edges and became more forgiving.