Car battery died and the ignition key wouldn't come out....

[MossRoad]

We have a 2014 Ford Escape SE and I have no idea where the battery is.:laughing: I haven't found it, looking around under the hood, so I wouldn't even know what to start taking apart to get to the battery.

Here's a handy video if you get tired of playing hide-n-seek... :laughing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B4d3t6O62w

Really, I'm kinda impressed how many handy videos there are out there on Youtube. Lotsa junk, too, but pretty handy most of the time.

 

[Inspector507]

But those old Chevy's would fire right up as long as you did not reinsert the key to lock it. You never needed a key at all. It was a simpler time.

Yep. Our family lived out away from town and my Step Dads 60's Chevy was the same way. He left it unlocked because he was a Volunteer Fire Fighter and didn't want to have to find his keys in the middle of the night.
He never knew us kids were driving his car out in the pasture if he went to town.

 

[Bird]

I wonder how many different keys each manufacturer uses now. I can remember when GM, if I remember right, had 99 keys and any dealer or locksmith who had that set had a key to any GM vehicle. Finding cars that use the same key isn't that unusual, or at least it used to not be. When I got my first car (1946 Chevy) in 1956, one of the older boys found that his 1952 Chevy key fit my car. He pulled the coil wire from the center of the distributor, put a cigarette filter in there, then put the wire back. If one of my friends hadn't seen him do it, I don't know how long it would have taken me to find the problem.:laughing: Then in 1958, I found that the key to my parents 1953 Buick also fit a friend's 1954 Corvette. Some police departments order their fleet all keyed the same. Dallas did not. But I gave the key to my unmarked car to one of my officers one day in 1982 and he (unintentionally, of course) took my boss's car. They were the same color and my key fit.

 

[Bird]

Yep. Our family lived out away from town and my Step Dads 60's Chevy was the same way. He left it unlocked because he was a Volunteer Fire Fighter and didn't want to have to find his keys in the middle of the night.
He never knew us kids were driving his car out in the pasture if he went to town.

I guess it's illegal lots of places now to leave a key in the ignition, but my parents never took the key out of the ignition and never locked a door to the car or the house until they moved to Anchorage in 1965. But after a drunk Eskimo just opened the front door, walked in, and sat down on the sofa one day because it was cold outside, they started locking doors.:laughing:

 

[k0ua]

I really believe that was a function of a worn ignition switch and/or key, rather than a feature from the manufacturer.

That is not how I remember it. It has been a long time, but I remember the lock cylinder having a Lock position but it required the key in the slot to be able to move the cylinder to the lock position. Otherwise if left in the OFF position, you simply grasped the lips of the cylinder without needing a key in the slot and you could pass thru ACC, ON and Start. move the cylinder back to OFF and the car shut down. No key needed for normal operation. But if you wanted to lock the ignition with key in slot turn to the LOCK position and remove key. Now nothing moves until is reinserted. I am talking about the Briggs and Stratton key and lock series used in GM cars from 1935 to 1966. Of course these cylinders were on the dash, and had nothing to do with locking steering wheels, this all came later. Steering wheels moved independently of ignition keys. A lot of cars of that era did not have power steering anyway.

I could be wrong, but this is what I remember.

 

[k0ua]

I wonder how many different keys each manufacturer uses now. I can remember when GM, if I remember right, had 99 keys and any dealer or locksmith who had that set had a key to any GM vehicle. Finding cars that use the same key isn't that unusual, or at least it used to not be. When I got my first car (1946 Chevy) in 1956, one of the older boys found that his 1952 Chevy key fit my car. He pulled the coil wire from the center of the distributor, put a cigarette filter in there, then put the wire back. If one of my friends hadn't seen him do it, I don't know how long it would have taken me to find the problem.:laughing: Then in 1958, I found that the key to my parents 1953 Buick also fit a friend's 1954 Corvette. Some police departments order their fleet all keyed the same. Dallas did not. But I gave the key to my unmarked car to one of my officers one day in 1982 and he (unintentionally, of course) took my boss's car. They were the same color and my key fit.

That is what I remember too 99 keys. And when the locks became worn, and the keys became worn, a lot of keys fit a lot of cars. I had one of the old worn out Briggs keys at one time that fit most of the kids GM cars in our school.

 

[Jstpssng]

That is not how I remember it. It has been a long time, but I remember the lock cylinder having a Lock position but it required the key in the slot to be able to move the cylinder to the lock position. Otherwise if left in the OFF position, you simply grasped the lips of the cylinder without needing a key in the slot and you could pass thru ACC, ON and Start. move the cylinder back to OFF and the car shut down. No key needed for normal operation. But if you wanted to lock the ignition with key in slot turn to the LOCK position and remove key. Now nothing moves until is reinserted. I am talking about the Briggs and Stratton key and lock series used in GM cars from 1935 to 1966. Of course these cylinders were on the dash, and had nothing to do with locking steering wheels, this all came later. Steering wheels moved independently of ignition keys. A lot of cars of that era did not have power steering anyway.

I could be wrong, but this is what I remember.

You're probably right, that era was before I started driving. I do know that if you turned it past "lock" you went to "acc" (accessories) which allowed you to run the radio and other features without burning out your points.

Even as late as 1979 Ford pickups still had the switch on the dashboard, making it easy for theives to simply pull the wire harness off and plug it into their own switch.

 

[MossRoad]

I guess it's illegal lots of places now to leave a key in the ignition, but my parents never took the key out of the ignition and never locked a door to the car or the house until they moved to Anchorage in 1965. But after a drunk Eskimo just opened the front door, walked in, and sat down on the sofa one day because it was cold outside, they started locking doors.:laughing:

I remember when we started locking doors as a kid.... late 1960's. On our one block, which was quiet and secluded on the outskirts of town, there were a couple break-ins, vandalism and a single, divorced woman two doors down got attacked. I remember my folks getting all us kids a house key. We were sad.

 

[k0ua]

You're probably right, that era was before I started driving. I do know that if you turned it past "lock" you went to "acc" (accessories) which allowed you to run the radio and other features without burning out your points.

Even as late as 1979 Ford pickups still had the switch on the dashboard, making it easy for theives to simply pull the wire harness off and plug it into their own switch.

Now I am starting to wonder if the way I described those old locksets working was because most of the cars I was around as a teenager were older and worn out and allowed removal of the key in the OFF position. Hard to say without a time machine and going into a new GM showroom in 1962 or something.

 

[Jstpssng]

Now I am starting to wonder if the way I described those old locksets working was because most of the cars I was around as a teenager were older and worn out and allowed removal of the key in the OFF position. Hard to say without a time machine and going into a new GM showroom in 1962 or something .

If you find a time machine would you please stash me a vehicle someplace safe? I'm not fussy, a simple Bel Air or C/K would be fine.