Never mind all.I was use to chevy and I didn't have to remove the wheel.After a bit more tinkering it came out when I turned the ignition on the whole way and pushed the gold pin in.Popped right out.Thanks anyway guys.

Good story, but you left off what you paid the lock smith. If that was less than $50 you saved up to a couple of hundred, good if it didn't take more than a few hours. Here I accept it cost time to take the car to the dealer and to pick it up, so that time you pay either way. Feels good to DIY and to save tax free dollars, great! Any dollar you save is yours, nothing goes to Uncle Sam or the Governor.

Thanks to those who followed up! Here is the story. The mercury dealer informed me that they sell the ingition key as a set (ignition, doors & trunk) ~$250. I checked and several after market car parts stores carried it (~$35 to 65); Because I could not turn the key, the only way to remove the old lock is to drill out the "sidebar" in the lock so the key can be turned and the lock released from the steering colum. I called a lock smith who came to the house and did the work. Because I had a chip in the key, the lock smith had to re-key the new lock so that my old key would work the new lock. Cost: $160 for the locksmith and $45 for the lock. The

My '88 Mazda (replacement single key about two bucks) was bought over three years ago - from an auto insurance appraiser, who had some plastic stickers that looked like bullet holes on one back corner, and offered to take them off, but I said to leave them there, that they weren't hurting anything. About 6 months later, I was in a smash that twisted one rear wheel a bit, and it took more than I'd paid to repair it, but my friend the body shop guy said that, at about 125,000 mi., it had some good mileage in it, so I fixed it - my contribution to energy waste and global pollution and warming, I guess, as repairs take a small amount of material and a lot of work. It's a standard transmission, so when a signal light goes yellow in the city, if traffic is normal, I push the clutch and turn off the key. The bigger cars go past at speed ... then a couple of hundred feet from the intersection, on come the red lights at the back! Can't people with automatics drive far enough ahead ... and think what they're doing enough to take their foot off of the throttle when the signal lights turn yellow?? My friend the body shop guy, though a few years younger than I, has been over afew hills and around a few corners in his lifetime and I doubt whether he can be taken for a ride easily when it comes to business ... as his business looks prosperous(and he has a vacation location at Lake Havasu). Some stuff in Canada is dearer than in the U.S. ole joyful