Last nite I was enjoying the drive home from a church meeting with the top down in my 71 Cutlass (LSx T56 swapped). I got a phone call as I approached a 4-way stop and I perhaps foolishly tried pulling it out of my back pocket; thought I could answer it and keep the car and gear and just roll out in 2nd and immediately shift to 5th and then I could talk. With my stiffer LS7 clutch and thinking about the phone, I released the clutch too quickly and killed the car. Set the phone down and pushed the clutch in again, key off and turned to start and the car may have started to crank but everything died and the key went all the way past start w/nothing happening. You know when you turn the key to the point where it will begin to start it normally has a bit of resistance to turning the key as it cranks the engine; my key now seems to be pushing against nothing through the whole range-no resistance. As if something inside the column broke. Any ideas what happened?
It was late, I went home and got my tow bar setup and put the car into neutral with the key on, towed it home. I do have power in the car; I was able to turn on the hazard lights for the tow home. And I've previously had it not want to start with the neutral safety switch bracket comes off my clutch pedal--this is not like that as the key is turning with no resistance.

 

Update. Found a guy here in Dayton who's a retired GM tech who only rebuilds tilt columns! Handy. There is a gear inside the column that turns the rod the goes down to the ignition switch; that gear (plastic or nylon I forget) broke and he'll have to replace it. And other fixes (like the turn signal switch which had also cracked a few years ago but still worked). I'll have a new ignition switch added since they're cheap while the column is out of the car.

 

Good fix. Eventually 50yr old stuff will fail.

 

Brand new Chinese stuff will fail too!