996 Sticky Ignition & barrel removal advice

Hello helpful forum people. I have what I believe is a relatively common problem, but just can't find a fix, maybe this long description helps to cover what's going on with my 2002 996 C4 Cab. Ignition switch & key have always been fine, but a couple of months ago the movement of the key became stiff whilst rotating it, and then became almost impossible to remove, and finally even when removed the car thinks the car is still in the switch - hence ignition stays on, car complains, battery dies, etc. After much research and youtube videos I ended up buy a replacement the ignition steering lock housing (99634701707) but never had the time to fit it. Now that I'm attempting the replacement process, the challenge I have is I simply can't get the ignition barrel out, despite literally hours of trying. I've read & watch everything to do with lining up the small hole, having the key in place, ignition switch in just the right place, using a paperclip to push into the small hole & line up the release catch, but to no avail. I can push the straightened paperclip into the hole (goes in maybe 5cm cm, or only 2cm when not lined up, so I assume it's going in fully when 5cm in), but no amount of wiggling the paperclip and/or ignition key (held by pliers, fob removed) releases the barrel. I've tried with the battery connected & disconnected, just in case that had an impact. I've removed the air duct/housing to gain access underneath the ignition area, removed the air vent & lighting control, so I've plenty of access to the area in general. I haven't come across a single video of someone successfully doing this on a 911, but have seen it on Golf and Audi, which I understand is essentially the same part. One thing that is different on my car vs the videos of other 911's is the hole on mine is at the bottom of the ignition barrel area (roughly 7 o'clock position), on the videos it's at the top (1 o'clock), albeit they are all US videos so maybe LHD cars are different? Any ideas? Is there a knack to this that I am missing? Any 'key whisperers' out there that can share an insight? I hope by replacing the ignition barrel and lock housing my underlying issue will be solved, I just can't get past the challenge of removing the barrel itself. Thanks all!

Have you tried removing the electrical switch from the other end first? Sometimes the electrical switch fails and stops the cylinder rotating to the correct position to get the pin in properly. Saying that it does seem like it must be in the correct position as normally you can't get the pin in more than a cm or so. It's possible that something has gone wrong inside the key barrel part which is allowing the pin to go in even though its not in the correct position to release the tang bit, hopefully not as that would be a right pain.Maybe try pulling / waggling harder. Something else you can do is hack saw the top off the original main housing as you only need to re-use the key barrel part. I had to do this recently on a Skoda Fabia which has a very similar design, on mine the inside part of the housing had broken and the broken bits were stopping the cylinder from rotating to the position where the pin could be inserted fully. If you look at your new housing you can see where the groove is where the tang on the key barrel engages. A pic maybe helpful to see exactly where the pin hole is Mac

Something else which may help is to remove the housing from the car with the key barrel still in place, you should be able to do this if the steering lock is not currently engaged. Once you have it on the bench it maybe easier to work out why you can't get the barrel to release!

How did you get on?

No joy yet. I have not yet removed the entire barrel & lock assembly, that is on the list of to-dos. I hope to give it a try tomorrow. Today's job is fixing the internals on the indicator stalk as I have the issue of non-cancelling indicators and instead of buying a £350 part to replace it I'm attempting the £0 option of mending the original item. I have the typical issue of the broken plastic tabs holding the spring. I'll document that fix if it works, as it's such a common issue I'm hoping it might be useful for other members.

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