Broken Key
Pop Quiz Hotshot... You are an hour from home
without your spare keys. You are in the middle of nowhere. You pull your car
keys out and as you start to put the key in the ignition, half the key falls off
and down onto the floor board. Now what do you do...what do you do?!?
I'm in
the middle of nowhere an hour from home. I start to put the key in the ignition
and half the key falls off. There is a perfectly straight crack where it broke
through. I know no one is home to call to have my spare keys brought to me. I
don't know where to begin to find a locksmith that can make a new key for me
from this broken one. Plus the sky is looking a little grey and the wind has
been blowing hard. I've got windshield wipers that choose to stop running at
times, sometimes for up to 30 minutes. All I can think is...I gotta get home.
This isn't the actual key
but
it is a fair representation of
it.
I
decide I need to act and damn the consequences. I pick up that broken piece of
key off the floor board and hold it up to the hole of the ignition. I line up
the rest of the key and push that broken piece in there, but it gets tilted and
falls back out. I pick it up again, breathe deep, steady myself and utter my new
mantra for the moment... "I am the key
master, I am the key master, I am the key master....you are the gate
keeper, you are the gate keeper, you are the gate keeper..."
This time I successfully get that broken end of the key into the ignition half way. I carefully lineup the two pieces of key and push them all the way in. It feels like the key and the tumblers in the ignition have all settled in. Now I have to see if the ignition will turn. I bite my lip...OUCH...that hurt like a sombitch...
This isn't the actual key
but
it is a fair representation of
it.I
decide I need to act and damn the consequences. I pick up that broken piece of
key off the floor board and hold it up to the hole of the ignition. I line up
the rest of the key and push that broken piece in there, but it gets tilted and
falls back out. I pick it up again, breathe deep, steady myself and utter my new
mantra for the moment... "I am the key
master, I am the key master, I am the key master....you are the gate
keeper, you are the gate keeper, you are the gate keeper..."
This time I successfully get that broken end of the key into the ignition half way. I carefully lineup the two pieces of key and push them all the way in. It feels like the key and the tumblers in the ignition have all settled in. Now I have to see if the ignition will turn. I bite my lip...OUCH...that hurt like a sombitch...
I bite my lip again, but much more gingerly
as I wait in anticipation. Will it turnover and start? IT DOES, IT
DOES!!!!
I hauled ass the rest of the way home and attempted to get that little piece of key out of the ignition. I tried lots of different stuff.
1. A magnet. Keys are brass and not magnetic.
2. A piece of tape wrapped around a small screwdriver. The tape didn't have enough stickiness to hold the connection and pull the key part out past the tumblers.
3. Insert a straw and suck like a a young gay man from New York who wants to earn a new iPod. I'm an ex smoker and just don't have the lungs to get anything but 10 years of truck ignition slot grime and dust in the back of my throat.
4. Two nail files. I had a hard time getting one on each side of the key without grinding the hell out of the ignition chamber and got worried about these tactics and what further damage I might cause so I quit that quickly.
5. Thought for four seconds about using glue on one piece of the key and trying to meld them back together within the ignition but like the one above I worried about collateral damage.
6. Two safety pins. I took two safety pins and straightened them out. Then I took a pair of pliers and bent the sharp tips of the pins in about 60 degrees. I then got the safety pins lined up with one tip on each side of the key part in the ignition and attempted to use the bent tips to grasp and dig into the sides of the key for traction. I tried this for about 10 minutes and it seemed like I got the key part to move a little bit. But dusk started to settle in and it was hard to hold the pins and a flashlight at the same time. So I gave up on that too.
7. Go in the house and call a damn locksmith. I called up a lock smith and explained the situation and how I wanted to avoid possibly having to have a mechanic rip out my steering column and put a new ignition in my truck. He said he could give it a look see. I hopped in the truck to drive over there but now I couldn't turn the ignition to start the vehicle. "KHAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!" I had dislodged the key just enough that now the ignition would not turn and the truck would not start. I got it put back in place and started it and got to the locksmith. In the end he was able to extract the key part in about 10 minutes, had a replacement key made in another 5 minutes and sent me happily on my way only $10 lighter in the pocket.
My only regret is the locksmith kept the broken key so I don't have it to take a photo of to post in this story.
I hauled ass the rest of the way home and attempted to get that little piece of key out of the ignition. I tried lots of different stuff.
1. A magnet. Keys are brass and not magnetic.
2. A piece of tape wrapped around a small screwdriver. The tape didn't have enough stickiness to hold the connection and pull the key part out past the tumblers.
3. Insert a straw and suck like a a young gay man from New York who wants to earn a new iPod. I'm an ex smoker and just don't have the lungs to get anything but 10 years of truck ignition slot grime and dust in the back of my throat.
4. Two nail files. I had a hard time getting one on each side of the key without grinding the hell out of the ignition chamber and got worried about these tactics and what further damage I might cause so I quit that quickly.
5. Thought for four seconds about using glue on one piece of the key and trying to meld them back together within the ignition but like the one above I worried about collateral damage.
6. Two safety pins. I took two safety pins and straightened them out. Then I took a pair of pliers and bent the sharp tips of the pins in about 60 degrees. I then got the safety pins lined up with one tip on each side of the key part in the ignition and attempted to use the bent tips to grasp and dig into the sides of the key for traction. I tried this for about 10 minutes and it seemed like I got the key part to move a little bit. But dusk started to settle in and it was hard to hold the pins and a flashlight at the same time. So I gave up on that too.
7. Go in the house and call a damn locksmith. I called up a lock smith and explained the situation and how I wanted to avoid possibly having to have a mechanic rip out my steering column and put a new ignition in my truck. He said he could give it a look see. I hopped in the truck to drive over there but now I couldn't turn the ignition to start the vehicle. "KHAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!" I had dislodged the key just enough that now the ignition would not turn and the truck would not start. I got it put back in place and started it and got to the locksmith. In the end he was able to extract the key part in about 10 minutes, had a replacement key made in another 5 minutes and sent me happily on my way only $10 lighter in the pocket.
My only regret is the locksmith kept the broken key so I don't have it to take a photo of to post in this story.
Posted: Wed - March 24, 2004 at 09:58 PM | | Email Me | |
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Published On: Jun 22, 2006 04:43 PM
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Published On: Jun 22, 2006 04:43 PM