Tried to fix Switch Linkage something went wrong

my boyfriend is currently trying to fix his 1970 Maverick, what happened first was he put the key in and started it up, but couldn't change gears, the shift thing (not a car person sorry) moved but wouldn't go into any gear but park. Not knowing what to do he starting pulling off the steering wheel to see if the shifter was off of it's track or whatever. So we get everything off, including the snap ring and all the stuff for the steering wheel, and it turns out that wasn't the issue. A neighbor came and banged the top part off and now we can't get it back on correctly, and not only that but there's nothing going on with the ignition. He'll turn the key but nothing happens. Can anyone help us out? We're currently in the process of moving and desperately need this vehicle.

 

It was probably the shift linkage that needed attention, under the hood at the firewall where the colum exits the inside ,then it goes under the car to the trans,sounds like the linkage came off somewhere from colum to trans. As far as starting the key switch hooks up to a rod that runs from key to a switch mounted on side of colum on right side of colum.

 

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the key tumbler operates a rod that is connected to the ing. switch that is mounted on the steering column under the dash. it may have came loose on one end or the other.

 

The neighbor should not have "banged" the top part off. In the enclosed photo, these 2 nuts need to be loosened, but do not remove the nuts completely... reach in and squeeze both toward the center of the column.... this will cause the 2 "T" bolts to move and hopefully realign themselves into the proper position which will allow the upper portion to fall into place thus causing the upper to fit more snug to the lower portion of the column.... all of this provided the neighbor didn't break it, as it is just made of pot metal. Once the upper is in the correct position, re-tighten the 2 nuts.

 

What part did the neighbor pound on? the steering wheel or the black part that the key is on?

 

Yeah we realized that after he "helped" he's a mechanic and I don't know why he even did that. I'll give this a shot though. When we intially put it back together, he realized one of the bolts was out of line and fixed it, but the other one didn't seem to be an issue. We'll check thay out again thank you.

 

Yeah he figured that out and fixed that part, and everything is connected the way it was, including the rod and key switch so we don't know why nothing was happening with the ignition.

 

Thanks for the welcome!
We had to undo the rod, or so our neighbor thought, and we did that but it's back on there the way it's supposed to be or so we think could it maybe be the wires in the key switch?

 

We already had the steering wheel off, he took the snap ring off and then banged that black part off.

 

He did that to one of them when we first tried to get it back on, but when I went to do the other he was looking in and said it wasn't in the way. we'll give that a shor again, but would that stop the ignition from starting the car?

 

So I got the bolts to what seems to be the right spot but I still can't get it to slide on right

 

Possibly.... the rod may be unable to push the switch to the start position now due to the space between the upper and lower portion of the column

 

So then how would I go about getting back where it needs to be?

 

Here's where I'm at: bolts are in where they need to be, ignition rod is in place and everything is supposedly right but it won't go back into place.

 

Normally when you have everything apart that black peice just slides right off without much effort. He might have damaged it when pounding on it.