How do you install a key switch cylinder in a 1979 Oldsmobile cutlass supreme?

Answer 1

assuming you are talking about the key lock cylinder (the place where you put in your key and start your car)

and assuming it is the same as my 1995 Oldsmobile cutless supreme, which i did this one because i lost my key.

disconnnect battery (to aviod airbag deployment)

take off front cover of steering wheel ( four screws on it, which are removed from behind)

disconnect horn and airbag (horn will be a wire that you push and turn, air bag will be a yellow wire with a small connector)

remove airbag module

there will be a small metal ring like object (like the ring on your key chain) but will have two tiny wholes in the end, there is a special wrench to take this off, but i used two pairs of plyers and multiple screwdrivers (its not fun) and eventually i just cut the thing off and replaced it

again, its small, your thumb could fit in the middle.

this "ring" is what keeps the airbag module in place. the airbag module is plastic, don't break it, or you will wish you didnt 300 for a new one...

carefully pull out the airbag module (plastic black roundish thing the air bag connector passes through the end of it. i think if i remember right it has another little connector at the end)

you will need a "lock plate compressor" tool

it pushes in the lock plate (the cog/gear looking thing that locks your sterring wheel in place) you can rent/buy one for about 20$, it looks kinda like a tuning fork.

then remove another little ring, this one is even more difficulty than the other to remove, it easily took me 3hours. the technique i used was 2 screw drivers, and got it to slide slowly back up the center of the steering column. i stuck one in from the top, and then the other beside it, prying counter-clockwise.

i think you also have to take off your "blinker rod" but that is two screws

when you buy a new lock cylander it will have these directions in the box.

this may not be everything, but is all i can remember.