Hurstmeister

I had the one in my 96 GT break off in there too. The reason you need the back half of the key is because of the PATS. (Passive Anti Theft System). On mine the key switch would turn over with the front half in there. You could take a screw driver and turn it over to start. Only thing,.. immediately after the engine fired up it would shut itself off flashing the THEFT light.

I was told by the dealer that if you attempt to start it like that 3 times in a row,.. even if you had the right key,.. it would still not let the car start after the 3rd failure. Ford can make you new keys from your VIN with their computer thingy,.. and reprogram the PATS. Last I did it for the Cobra it was $150 a key and they will only do 2 keys,.. so ended up being over $300.

There is a small chip in the back half of the key. You can pry it apart and it is removable. For the GT I tore the ignition switch apart (serious pita), got the broken key half out. From that I had a regular old school Ford key made ($1.50). Took the chip out of the back half and epoxied it to the old school key and had no more problems. Key was ugly as sin,.. but perfectly functional.

Look at what was left of the ignition switch in my GT.



I'll give you a call later after you wake up. Its 7 now,.. gonna run the kids to school,.. come back home,.. have some chocolate milk and wake up myself.

Hurst