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Old 04-17-2014, 03:13 PM   #1
paqman
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Bypass steering wheel lock? (for push button start)

So I wanted to do something fun to the Escort this summer. (I don't drive it during the summer, so I have time to screw with it) I'm looking at installing a push button start, and removing all need for a key. And I'm not talking about anything with rfid, or anything fancy. A simple setup with switches to give power to all the accessories, and to the starter, then a momentary press button for the ignition. I will likely hide one of the switches, like the fuel pump or something as a security measure. (Which is all the security I care for in my salvage title, no AC Escort lol) There is no rhyme or reason for any of this other than I think it would be a fun project, and a cool addition to the car. (more buttons and switches more better)

Anyway, I think I'll be able to work my way through the electronics, but I haven't been able to find anything on bypassing the steering wheel lock. Anyone have any information on disabling this?

And if you have any good videos or tutorials on doing a simple push button start of this nature (being no rfid or anything fancy like that), I'd appreciate all the info I can get as well. (FYI, it's a 1997 manual transmission)
Thanks!

ps. if anyone is wondering, "man, you must have a ton of time on your hands", ha I don't. I have four kids, and I'm asking myself right now why I'm even thinking of doing this in the first place, cause I don't have time lol.
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Old 05-06-2014, 08:19 PM   #2
denisond3
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Re: Bypass steering wheel lock? (for push button start)

None of what I tell you here should be done if you worry about the car being stolen, or your kids getting into it and messing around with the controls, and may involve you in liability problems if you sell the car to someone else.

The Escort steering wheel lock is easy to bypass. There is a pin that is pushed up by a spring. Its in the middle of the ignition lock assembly. With the lower half of the steering column clamshell removed you will see a shiny circle no bigger than a quarter on the bottom of the switch. It holds the spring that pushes up on the locking pin. Prying off the cover will let the spring drop out. Then the pin wont be pushed up anymore, and the steering wheel wont lock. If you want to be really thorough/safe about it, you could take the ignition lock assembly off of the column and get the pin to come out of the ignition switch entirely.
After this there are other interlocks you can also defeat. There is the electric interlock where you need to put your foot onto the brake in order to move the shift lever out of park. That is easy to overcome, using some utility wire to hold a little lever in the 'free' position. You would have to take the plastic console to see the little lever.
Another interlock is the one in the cars with an automatic transmission that keeps you from taking the key out of the ignition switch until the shift lever is in park. This interlock is vital to leave alone - until you defeat the steering wheel lock. This one is done with a small cable running between the shift lever base and the side of the ignition switch, the key lock side of it. You can unhook the cable where it attaches to the ignition key lock.

My problem with modifying my Escorts (I own 3 of them) is that my wife, my daughters, and sometimes friends may drive the cars - so it can't be tooo far different from what they expect. That is why I have left the clutch interlock on our 5-speed Escort. It means you still have to press the clutch down for the starter to work. I grew up learning to drive on cars that didnt have any interlocks, and I dont consider I need them. But I know my wife or my kids would eventually start that 5-speed Escort with the shift lever in gear - if I took away the pedal interlock.

Be aware there may be no place you can put a switch or switches that your kids wont eventually find & want to play with.

If your car still has the 'chime' when you have the key in the ignition and open the door, there is a white switch on the side of the ignition switch with two wires going to it. Cutting either wire will silence the key-in-ignition-and-door-open chime, but the chime to remind you that you left the lights on and shut the engine off.
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Old 05-06-2014, 08:42 PM   #3
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Re: Bypass steering wheel lock? (for push button start)

Quote:
Originally Posted by denisond3 View Post
None of what I tell you here should be done if you worry about the car being stolen, or your kids getting into it and messing around with the controls, and may involve you in liability problems if you sell the car to someone else.

The Escort steering wheel lock is easy to bypass. There is a pin that is pushed up by a spring. Its in the middle of the ignition lock assembly. With the lower half of the steering column clamshell removed you will see a shiny circle no bigger than a quarter on the bottom of the switch. It holds the spring that pushes up on the locking pin. Prying off the cover will let the spring drop out. Then the pin wont be pushed up anymore, and the steering wheel wont lock. If you want to be really thorough/safe about it, you could take the ignition lock assembly off of the column and get the pin to come out of the ignition switch entirely.
After this there are other interlocks you can also defeat. There is the electric interlock where you need to put your foot onto the brake in order to move the shift lever out of park. That is easy to overcome, using some utility wire to hold a little lever in the 'free' position. You would have to take the plastic console to see the little lever.
Another interlock is the one in the cars with an automatic transmission that keeps you from taking the key out of the ignition switch until the shift lever is in park. This interlock is vital to leave alone - until you defeat the steering wheel lock. This one is done with a small cable running between the shift lever base and the side of the ignition switch, the key lock side of it. You can unhook the cable where it attaches to the ignition key lock.

My problem with modifying my Escorts (I own 3 of them) is that my wife, my daughters, and sometimes friends may drive the cars - so it can't be tooo far different from what they expect. That is why I have left the clutch interlock on our 5-speed Escort. It means you still have to press the clutch down for the starter to work. I grew up learning to drive on cars that didnt have any interlocks, and I dont consider I need them. But I know my wife or my kids would eventually start that 5-speed Escort with the shift lever in gear - if I took away the pedal interlock.

Be aware there may be no place you can put a switch or switches that your kids wont eventually find & want to play with.

If your car still has the 'chime' when you have the key in the ignition and open the door, there is a white switch on the side of the ignition switch with two wires going to it. Cutting either wire will silence the key-in-ignition-and-door-open chime, but the chime to remind you that you left the lights on and shut the engine off.
Thanks, this is helpful. I'll try to pull it open sometime soon and let you know how it goes. As far as your concerns, you're totally right, it could cause problems with little kids or other drivers. However, I am the only one that ever drives this car, with the exception of my wife every once in a while, and my hope was to put a few of the switches in plain view, but the fuel pump or some other critical switch will be hidden so the car could not be started without it. My kids never fiddle around in the car anyway, I'm not really worried. And once I show my wife how to start it, it won't be a problem. She'll think I'm stupid, but that's about it. It's a manual, so I wouldn't have to worry about the electric interlock while taking it out of park, or any of the other automatic transmission related locks. I would definitely leave the clutch interlock in place, for the same reason you mentioned, I wouldn't want to accidentally start the car without the clutch in.

Thanks for the info. This will be the first thing to see if I can get past. Once I can do that, I'll dive into the electronics. If you have any useful information or diagrams on that, it would be much appreciated as well. :-)
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Current Vehicles:
2008 Nissan Altima ~ 115k miles
2010 Nissan Maxima ~ 74k miles
2007 Toyota Sienna LE ~ 145K miles

Goners
1997 Ford Escort ~145k miles (SOLD)
2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 ~13k (SOLD)
1983 Honda Magna V45 ~13k (SOLD)
2004 Mazdaspeed Miata ~90k (SOLD)
2001 Ford Mustang GT ~86K (SOLD)
2007 Suzuki Boulevard M50 ~12k (SOLD)
2001 Nissan Maxima - (TOTALLED)
2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue (SOLD)
1991 Nissan Maxima (TOTALLED)
1989 Pontiac Grand Am (SOLD)
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Old 05-12-2014, 06:56 AM   #4
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Re: Bypass steering wheel lock? (for push button start)

There are two manuals you can get on ebay for the car - or maybe its three of them (I dont recall since I only have 2nd gen Escorts). One is called the Service Manual, which is an excellent manual, but doesnt have wiring diagrams in it. The other one is called the Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual, the EVTM. Many sellers on ebay sell just that one manual, or the just Service Manual, because the EVTM isnt marked as a second volume. The EVTM has all of the wiring diagrams, along with diagrams of most all connectors and the circuit names/colors for the wires going into them, and has pictorials showing the location of all components - and the location of all of the grounding points on a Escort is fairly complex.
At some point, the 3rd gen Escorts began having two volumes to the Service Manual instead of one (because it got too thick to be one volume), plus the EVTM. You need to get the EVTM for your year of car, since there were substantial changes to the electrical for every year of Escort.
The EVTM still doesnt show the schematics for the PCM, nor of the airbag control module, nor for the internals of the radio. I dont know of any source for those schematics.
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Old 05-12-2014, 09:42 AM   #5
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Re: Bypass steering wheel lock? (for push button start)

Quote:
Originally Posted by denisond3 View Post
There are two manuals you can get on ebay for the car - or maybe its three of them (I dont recall since I only have 2nd gen Escorts). One is called the Service Manual, which is an excellent manual, but doesnt have wiring diagrams in it. The other one is called the Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual, the EVTM. Many sellers on ebay sell just that one manual, or the just Service Manual, because the EVTM isnt marked as a second volume. The EVTM has all of the wiring diagrams, along with diagrams of most all connectors and the circuit names/colors for the wires going into them, and has pictorials showing the location of all components - and the location of all of the grounding points on a Escort is fairly complex.
At some point, the 3rd gen Escorts began having two volumes to the Service Manual instead of one (because it got too thick to be one volume), plus the EVTM. You need to get the EVTM for your year of car, since there were substantial changes to the electrical for every year of Escort.
The EVTM still doesnt show the schematics for the PCM, nor of the airbag control module, nor for the internals of the radio. I dont know of any source for those schematics.
Thanks, that's good info. Yeah, I bought the service manual on ebay
years ago, didn't even think of looking in there for the wiring
diagrams. It's in digital form though, so I'll have to check and see
if it came with the EVTM, maybe I'll be lucky lol.

The electrical may be an interesting endeavor, as this particular
escort has displayed some interesting behavior in the past lol. A
while ago I was trying to fix the cigarette lighter, and found that
the fuse was blown. After replacing the fuse, the cigarette lighter
was working, but the stereo would not turn off, even if the car was
fully off. I believe this was caused due to a bad ACC relay, which I
had replaced with a junkyard pull years ago. Another interesting
thing happened just last weekend after filling up with gas. I was
trying to reset the trip meter after filling up, but I couldn't quite
push it all the way in. I was in gear, so I thought maybe going into
neutral would fix it. It kind of did, but I had to push it a few
times, and a few of those pushes caused windshield wiper fluid to come
out of the wiper fluid dispensers! Weirdest thing. That could also
be related to the bad ACC relay. So needless to say, I may want to
replace that relay before attempting this particular electrical
project lol.
__________________
Current Vehicles:
2008 Nissan Altima ~ 115k miles
2010 Nissan Maxima ~ 74k miles
2007 Toyota Sienna LE ~ 145K miles

Goners
1997 Ford Escort ~145k miles (SOLD)
2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 ~13k (SOLD)
1983 Honda Magna V45 ~13k (SOLD)
2004 Mazdaspeed Miata ~90k (SOLD)
2001 Ford Mustang GT ~86K (SOLD)
2007 Suzuki Boulevard M50 ~12k (SOLD)
2001 Nissan Maxima - (TOTALLED)
2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue (SOLD)
1991 Nissan Maxima (TOTALLED)
1989 Pontiac Grand Am (SOLD)
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