_{well I will say that the new one had he exact same level of stiffness that the now broken one started with.  The shop owner in question put a lot of graphite in there, turned the ignition and pulled out the key area times, then repeated that twice more.  The replacement now feels distinctly smoother and easier to insert and remove the key.  I suspect that if no one lubes them up enough the most of thse ignitions are likely to crap out early.}

I bought a newly made MK IV column lock and switch a year ago and thought it felt like very poor quality.  It worked and a I fitted it to a car that I have not seen since, I wonder how it fared.

Hats off to the shop owner.  He played around with it himself then handed me a New ignition.  I figured he would be cool a once I've spent a few thousand there in the last 2 months.

It looks as if one of the internal pins (or some other debris) came loose, fell down into the keyway and jammed the key.

so I got a new mkIII+ ignition because my old one had self destructed....the new one (brand new repro model though not purchased through here) was really stiff when it came to taking the key in and out.  I figured it just had a stiff spring and needed breaking in....then tonight it simply refused to release the key.  It felt like it was hanging up on whatever it is that provides the initial resistance when you put in the key.  I finaly got it out but ended up pulling the key loose from the rubber piece on the end of it and had to use vise grips to remove it.  The key ended up getting all bent up and had a big dent/gouge running up both sides of the key from whatever was keeping it from being removed.  I thought it might be the key so I inserted the spare and it got stuck before even getting 1/3 way into the ignition

Needless to say I'm rather pissed since it was about $120 and was bought less than a  month ago.  I think I'm going to have to have a chat with the owner of the shop and see if he is willing to exchange it for a new one.  Hopefully he will be good to me since I've spent a few thousand there just in the last two months.  The only problem I have with returning it is that I had to cut off the quick connect socket because my car didnt have one anymore :(