Steering Column ignition “piece”?

Artiaga.dad

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New to the YJ world. Picked up an 87 Rust Bucket real cheap. Chipping away little by little at all the issues. Runs really well. Odometer reads 55k. Who knows. . Eliminating rust on grounds has solved many issues. While dropping oil off at Napa, the RB didn’t want to crank. Checked battery, various terminals, and all accessible connections. Nothing. No idea why, but, I looked at the left side of the steering column. Sure enough, a piece was breaking off. Never seen this piece on any other vehicle. Not sure what the part is. It pulls a piece forward allowing the vehicle to turn over. Any help identifying this part would be awesome. Please see pic. I’m holding the piece that actually fell off. I need to pull the bar on the column by hand to start. Also need to push it in to shut the vehicle off. Am I going to need to pull the steering wheel to replace?

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Generally speaking there is a rod that goes from the key switch down to the ignition switch at the base of the column. What exactly broke on yours I can say but typically steering columns have waaaaay to many parts, typical tilt column has some 120 pieces to it, and some are no longer to be had. Might have to find a junk yard replacement to scavenge parts.
 
It looks like your key release is broken. Do you have a manual or automatic transmission?
I'm thinking someone has changed out your steering column. I just removed my steering column in a 95 YJ and the key release is different.

I went to the local junk yard and pulled a column out of a 96 Cherokee with tilt steering and installed it in my YJ.
 
It looks like your key release is broken. Do you have a manual or automatic transmission?
I'm thinking someone has changed out your steering column. I just removed my steering column in a 95 YJ and the key release is different.

I went to the local junk yard and pulled a column out of a 96 Cherokee with tilt steering and installed it in my YJ.
I was thinking the same thing, can't find anything on AMC columns (which it should be) that looks like that.