New ignition cylinder does not activate starter

I actually have one of these in my glove box right now, waiting to take a photo of it. I'll try to post that in a follow-up reply.

There are at least three different designs, all interchangeable as long as you have the matching lock cylinder for the switch assembly. It looks to me like one design was used on Jeep models only.

The common design uses a cam on the end of the cylinder opposite where the key slides in. That cam has a raised lip all the way around except for a small notch in it. Part of that lip breaks away making the notch larger. That's the part that turns the switch. In this case, it can't turn it quite far enough to hit the starter switch contacts. I first ran into this on my mother's '95 Grand Caravan. Got that one started too with a screwdriver after the cylinder was pulled out. Ran into that a good three or four times after that at the dealership. Chrysler has a very inexpensive repair kit for this. The alternative is to find a used cylinder at a salvage yard, but then you have to use the key it came with or have the dealer install different tumblers for you.

The repair kit is less expensive and just as quick. The original cam is slid onto a shaft, then the end of that shaft is peened over. Use an air-powered cutoff tool to cut the old cam off, file the peened area smooth, then slide the new cam onto the shaft. There's two small holes on the side of the cam. Drill through one of them, through the shaft, and out the other hole, then insert the supplied roll pin. With experience, the job takes less than five minutes.

The ignition switch assembly doesn't have to be removed to do this repair, but if you do take it out, look very closely at the two terminals the blue arrow is pointing to. If those are black or overheated, you'll find similar damage on the connector terminals, and the connector body may be melted. That is a fairly common problem for owners who are in the habit of turning the ignition switch on or off while the heater fan switch is set to one of the higher speeds. Arcing in the switch leads to pitting and resistance which leads to more heat and more resistance. That comes with its own set of symptoms and that heat will migrate to the connector terminals causing them to overheat and lose their tension. If necessary, I can describe how I handle that repair.

I would suggest, "no". I installed new switches at the dealership, but when I did this for myself, I installed used, salvage yard switches that I stocked up on over the years. I also have a friend with a body shop who specializes in rebuilding one and two-year-old smashed Chrysler products. He is always buying sections from salvage yards. He takes what he needs, then lets me scrounge good parts before sending the remains for scrap. Those switches I use in my vehicles are likely to have more miles on them than what I'm taking out. My feeling is you're wasting your money on a service that isn't needed unless you find otherwise.

Where this all started was with a service bulletin that matched what I had the customer's van in for. I had been repairing car radios for two dozen dealers around my state. That's why they directed this vehicle to me. The symptom was the cassette player would change direction any time both front power windows were rolled down at the same time. Service bulletins are much different than recalls. They are only meant to inform mechanics of solutions to what might be elusive causes. In this case the radio, power windows, and heater fan are all switched on and off through the same section of the ignition switch. By turning the engine off frequently while the heater fan is still set to "high", that very high current causes arcing on the switch contacts, and / or it can lead to overheating the two terminals associated with that circuit. If either the contacts or the terminals become overheated, that leads to increased resistance, and that leads to more heat build-up. It's a vicious circle that keeps getting worse until those two pairs of terminals turn black or discolored. What was happening is any motor draws less current once it gets up to speed. When the windows bottomed out, the motors locked up, so current through them went way up. That's normal, until you release the switches. The excessive resistance across the switch contacts causes a corresponding "voltage drop". You could potentially notice that as the heater fan motor slows down until you release the window switches. The radio incorrectly interpreted that as the ignition switch was turned off. In response, it retracts the cassette player's head and pinch roller. It goes back to "play" mode when the window switches are released. It never really changed directions, but that's what it sounded like.

The fix at that time was to replace the ignition switch and pop the original cylinder into it. It wasn't until after that service bulletin appeared that we started seeing the connector terminals also being overheated. My observation was when only the switch or only the connector terminals are replaced, the part you left in is still getting hot and that heat will migrate out to overheat the new part you just put in. You have to replace the switch and the two terminals at the same time.

When I do these switch connectors, I cut out the two terminals and the melted plastic around them. Plug the connector into the new switch that way, then plug in two new terminals into the switch one at a time.

The wire is also going to have been hot and hardened to the point solder won't adhere to it. Here's the rest of my repair.

Cut off about 4" of those two wires. Splice on 4" of new wire of the same gauge. Seal those two splices with heat-shrink tubing. On the other ends, install a pair of universal crimp-type terminals, but solder them too for best connection. Plug those into the new switch, one at a time.

This same repair works for overheated head light switches and dimmer switches. You still have to replace the switch, but you can address the burned terminals the same way. I've run into this with fan speed switches twice on my mother's vehicles, (she thinks she will get warm sooner by running the fan on "high"), but these are easier to just find a good used connector from a salvage yard. It used to also be pretty easy to find a good switch rather than buying a new one. All you have to do is splice four or five wires rather than cutting away melted plastic and installing individual terminals.