87 Allante, 73K miles - I had it for sale on CL, someone came to look at it, asking price was 1650, he offered 1500 and I grabbed it - car runs, inspected, I put 3000 miles on it last fall, pulled it for the winter, and decided I don't need 2 Allantes. Good rubber, engine, tranny, standard ABS problem, brakes work fine every time, no rust, sharp looking, interior fair to decent.

I take a $100 deposit, buyer drives off happy, will pay and pick up the next work day. I noticed that I left the driver's window down, and also wanted to back it up closer to the house to make room for my Eldo.

Turned the key, started it, and the key just kept on turning. Would turn from steering lock about 180 degrees clockwise and back. Couldn't get the car off, had to pull the ECM fuse to stop the engine.

Called the buyer, explained the situation, offered deposit back, which he took. No problem at all with the buyer, really decent guy, truly, I am glad it broke for me and not for him after he paid and got it home - I would have cried handing back 1500 and arranging a tow back to my house for the car (would have cried, but it would have been the only decent thing to do in the first day or 2 after he bought it).

Spent some time cursing GM, Cadillac, Pininfarina, and my own stupidity and OCD for HAVING to have an Allante.

Grabbed the FSM, looked at what the ignition switch did, and figured I could rig a halfway decent looking bypass a lot more easily than changing the ignition switch. Went down in the cellar, looked around in my boxes of old industrial robot parts, and found a nice panel with a rotary off-on-momentary-on switch gang on it. Drilled the backing panel, added a lamp holder with a green bezel, and wired it up to a pair of 85 amp relays in parallel.

Hooked it up to a 12 volt bench power supply, it performed as expected. Wired in to the car - cut all 5 outputs of the ignition switch, hooked them to a terminal strip, and fed them with the switched 12 volts out of the relays. Fed the input to the switch off the big red wire from C202 (which I also cut loose from the ignition switch harness). Took a ground for the field coils on the relays and the lamp from a mounting screw for whatever control module is mounted above the parking brake.

Neatened the whole thing up with wire ties, turned the switch to "on" and the green indicator lamp that I installed next to my switch lit up. Blower motor in the heater started running; I turned it off and turned my switch to the momentary on position. Car turns over, burps twice, and starts and runs.

I'm sitting there telling myself how smart I am, and how I saved the hassle of replacing the ignition switch. Turned my switch fully CCW to "off" - the green light goes off, the radio stops making static, and all is well - EXCEPT the damn car is still running.

Turned my switch on and off again, still running. Got under the steering column and cut the remaining 3 wires not in the FSM as ignition switch related, car still running. Grab a voltmeter, measure each of the 5 wires indicated in the FSM as being hot when the key switch is on - 0 volts on every one, relays are turning off properly. Slid off the connector to my switch and relays from the live all the time 12 volts, car is STILL running. Darn thing is possessed.

Had to pull fuse 14 ECM power to get it to stop.

Anyone seen this? Bear in mind that the car is running smoothly and steadily, idle around 800, definitely not dieseling.

Not sure I have the patience to trace power to the ECM to see why it is still on after the switch is turned off - I will probably just pull the feed side off the fuse holder and feed it with switched 12 off my relays.

I think it is haunted - the car must have been made with steel from Christine.