2000 Dodge Ram Van 1500 5.2

Hi all - has anyone been inside the ignition switch? I popped mine open -like an idiot- looking for dirty contacts. Now when I reassemble it, everything seems to go back together correctly. But the little white plastic barrel inside of it won't turn all the way to the START position. It clicks through the ACCESSORY, OFF and RUN positions fine. But something is binding somewhere and prevents it rotating all the way back START. This is true whether the ignition switch is re-installed on the steering column, or just loose in my hand. The little torsion spring is positioned so that the 90-degree prong fits into a little notch in the bottom half of the plastic housing, and the straight prong rests on top of the tab on the white barrel. The key lock cylinder for it's part goes back on fine and moves smoothly through the full range of motion.

It all looks right, and yet so wrong. What the heck did I do??

Here's how I've got it reassembled. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

"Empty" unit

Contacts, white barrel, and spring installed.

Closed up, minus the contact springs and cover

 

Buy a new switch.

 

@HeyYou I would have, but the shame was too much. Turns out it can be reassembled. Just a PITA.

TLDR: don't open it in the first place.

For anyone else who's dumb enough to open this thing, here's how it goes back together...

The coiled torsion spring must be installed under pretty significant tension. In the second photo, you can see the "straight" prong on the right protruding up out of the bottom half of the black plastic casing, while the "90-degree" prong rests in a little notch in the left side of the casing. To get everything working correctly, you need the straight prong to be pointing up about 45-degrees higher, so that it sits against a little plastic ridge in the top half of the black plastic casing (sorry, no photo). This isn't easy to do, bc it means twisting the spring 45-degrees while clicking the two halves of the casing back together. I did it by setting the straight prong in against that ridge in the top half, clicking the two halves partially together, and then bending the 90-degree prong (which will now be on the right side of the bottom half of the casing) around under the white barrel with a little screwdriver to the left side. Took a few tries, but when that 90-degree prong gets far enough left to click into its little notch in the bottom half, you can squeeze the two halves together and you're safe. Put the silver collar (third photo) on quickly to hold the two halves of the casing together, or the tension of the torsion spring can pop them apart. Also, I found it helpful to re-install the six little contact springs that hold down the L-shaped contacts, and their plastic cover, so that the L-shaped contacts didn't fall out of place while I was fighting to bend the torsion spring into place.

Everything now works fine again, and saved $150. Another problem created -and solved- for no reason.

Torsion spring vv