Ok now were talking about my 79 Z, ignition lock has been acting up for a couple days engaging only sometimes and today it stopped all together. My question is, should i attempt to replace this myself? i can build an engine with my eyes closed but ive never replaced an ignition cylinder. Any special tools or tips you can offer?

Are you talking about the cylinder lock on the steering column?
If so, I understand it is pretty easy - you should be able to do it no worries.
I'll check my manuals when I'm home.

-jt

You should be able to pull the steering wheel and then be able to see where there lock cylinder is secured. There is a little pin you have to push in to unseat the the cylinder from the column. As I recall, you have to have the key in the run? position to be able to push in the pin and pull the cylinder out.

you might have to removed the steering wheel lock plate.there is a tool for that .some of them did not have a pin they had a small bolt with a pin built in. all in all its a easy process.

The lock plate tool and a steering wheel puller are the only special tools that you'll need. Be gentle when replacing the turn signal lever screw, the turn signal cam, if original, can be brittle as well as a p.i.t.a. to replace sometimes. Total time the first time you do this will be about two hours if you're not in a hurry.

When you go to reinstall any screws into plastic, slowly turn the screw backwards till you feel it drop into the original threads, then tighten it. I learned this trick a couple of weeks ago when I was 9 years old and started building model cars that were held together with four screws on the bottom.

Ok got it all apart no problem, pretty straight forward. Heres the problem, theres almost no resistance when you turn the cylinder and it wont spring back from the start position, this is what the old one was doing. When you turn the key to the start position it sticks there and doesnt even draw any voltage. Is there some contact thats not touching or something.

PS I found too tiny ball bearings rolling around in bottom of the column...what the hells up with that?