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Lost my key


Bekah

New Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2024
Messages
4
City
Mojave, CA
Vehicle Year
1991
Transmission
Manual
So there was a fire. My whole house burned down, but somehow my beloved 91 take is perfectly fine. I'm so glad he's ok! But the keys were in the house. Any idea how to go about getting it running again? Should I call a locksmith or maybe change the ignition?
 
find a SMALL town ford dealership (not a big huge one from a major metro), take the VIN and some proof of ownership (title)... I know probably in the house, but maybe in the bank safety deposit??? anyhow the small town will charge you like $5 for a key, the big major metro dealers will want $1000 as if it was a PATS key and programming etc.

hopefully the Ford dealer you bought your last Ford from....
 
So, a 91 Ranger will not have PATS.

It will have separate door and ignition keys. H50 and H51 blanks if I mind right. You have a few options…

Small town Ford dealer is an option. Same with a locksmith. Might want to call around and see who will offer the best deal.

If you have AAA or roadside assistance through your insurance, they may be able to help. I know years ago I had AAA Plus and they sent out a locksmith to cut me a new ignition key on site, no charge.

The cheap option is to hit up a junkyard and get keys to try. Ford used only a certain number of keys back when. Rangers, Bronco II, F-series, E-series, full size Bronco and more used those style keys until somewhere in the 90’s. Downside is that a lot of those have disappeared from junkyards in recent years so it may be a harder find.

If you’re really ambitious you can get a trial set of keys from online or a locksmith supplier
 
I wouldn't expect Ford's key code database to still contain 1991 info. A locksmith should be able to make a key. The other choice is to change all the lock cylinders. Our salesmen often lost keys before we kept them in lock boxes so I would wind a screw into the ignition lock cylinder, attach a dent puller/slide hammer, beat the old lock out and install a new one. If you change the locks record the new key numbers somewhere.
I encountered 2 new vehicles with the same key in 42 years at the dealer, if you stumble on a key that works buy a lottery ticket because it's your lucky day.
 
I encountered 2 new vehicles with the same key in 42 years at the dealer, if you stumble on a key that works buy a lottery ticket because it's your lucky day.
Dad had three different F-150s that all used the same ignition key. My 88 B2 and 89 B2 (the 89 that I sold) used the same door key. Want to say my 92 shares a key with something but I don’t remember which off-hand. One of my keys almost turns dad’s 79 F-150 ignition. I’d rather I was that lucky with lottery tickets…
 
That is some luck, I have never ran across 2 cars that used the same key, not even close to same looking... my 89 Mercury, 95 mercury, and now my 90 Ranger all have keys that look vastly different, and I kept one key from each of those old dead vehicles when I sent em off to the scrapper

I'm with Walt on this your chances of finding a key in a junkyard are incredible.

My mom has locked herself out a number of times and every time just walked to a dealer (buick dealer for the first one when I was alive)... but she has lived in a small town all the time, every time they have always been able to cut a key from just the VIN. That whole proof of ownership is a "technically they are required to" thing, but never she had to - always locking her purse in trunk or in vehicle so nothin, no proof of nothin... which you could get away with 'back in the day'.

If the Ford dealer says no go, not in database anymore (much more likely today than it used to be), I'd go the route of just changing all the cylinders. To re-paint I removed the door cylinders, and to swap to tilt column (junkyard) I did the ignition (so I had 6 keys instead of 1 single 1)... None of em were hard at all.
 
Did the keys actually melt out of shape? Or do you not have any way to locate them in the rubble? If you have an idea where they were in the house before the fire, they should be close to that location in the debris. Admittedly, I don't know the whole situation. But if it were me, I would know where to look and keys (vehicles, storage buildings or other keys) are something I would spend some time on.
 
There is some merit to hunting for em... even if they are so brittle (shouldn't be - nickle plated brass) that they would snap when used you could use them to get a $5 copy a LOT cheaper than any other option... I suggested the replace all locks cause while it is work, the parts are nothing compared to the minimum $250 truck roll fee for a locksmith to come to you.

I was thinking they probably would have melted into a puddle given they are brass but a quick check of melting temps says typical house fire can reach "up to 1500F" where brass melts more like 1650F+ depending on alloy.
 
It's not hard enough to change locks for me to sift through a pile of burnt debris.
I was service manager when we first got key code access. We were only allowed to get codes for registered owners- no banks or repo men. I had to argue with some lenders who wouldn't accept that having possession of the title(in the owners name) wasn't good enough.
The rules tightened up after a Ford dealer in Texas was looking up and selling key numbers in bulk. A kid in Texas was driving his Focus to college in Mexico and coming home on weekends. Someone got his key number, put drugs in the car in Mexico, and he got arrested at the border on the way back home.
After that Ford would randomly ask for the dealers to provide the ID verification documents. If you couldn't produce verification your key code access was shut off permanently.
 
I wouldn't expect Ford's key code database to still contain 1991 info. A locksmith should be able to make a key. The other choice is to change all the lock cylinders. Our salesmen often lost keys before we kept them in lock boxes so I would wind a screw into the ignition lock cylinder, attach a dent puller/slide hammer, beat the old lock out and install a new one. If you change the locks record the new key numbers somewhere.
I encountered 2 new vehicles with the same key in 42 years at the dealer, if you stumble on a key that works buy a lottery ticket because it's your lucky day.

Someone on a parts person group on FB said Ford only goes back like 10 years. It wasn't that long.

Chrysler went back to the 80's, it may have gone back farther but our cutter didn't.

Call a travelling locksmith, should be cake compared to a new one
 
There is some merit to hunting for em... even if they are so brittle (shouldn't be - nickle plated brass) that they would snap when used you could use them to get a $5 copy a LOT cheaper than any other option... I suggested the replace all locks cause while it is work, the parts are nothing compared to the minimum $250 truck roll fee for a locksmith to come to you.

I was thinking they probably would have melted into a puddle given they are brass but a quick check of melting temps says typical house fire can reach "up to 1500F" where brass melts more like 1650F+ depending on alloy.


I did try to find them. There is basically boring left of this house. It burned through my "fireproof" safe and everything. And there's tons of metal I would have expected to find around but it's gone.
 
Wow. Sorry to hear that.
 
A few thoughts.

The 91 does not have any kind of smart key. If you had any key, you could get a copied, and anybody can do that, but I understand you don’t have one to copy. When the Road Ranger hit about 250,000 miles, I had the keys, but the keys were all worn out. They would start the truck, but I couldn’t get the doors open reliably. I went to a “real“ locksmith, the kind of place you walk in and there’s 2000 different teas hanging on the wall behind the counter, and they were able to get the key code from the VIN number and cut a brand new key. I didn’t have to change the ignition switch, change my door locks, or anything. If it helps, I use the Sandy springs locksmith in Atlanta, and I’m almost positive. They will do it for you long distance if you simply send them your ownership papers. The shipping will cost more than the keys.

Another thought. A friend of mine had a 60s Chevy nova when we were going to high school around 1970. Hold that thought. When I was in college, a couple years later, I had a 1962 3-wheel drive Chevy pick up. What they had in common was that you could open the door and turn the vehicle on with a screwdriver, a metal spoon, a key from anything that would slide in the hole, including a house, key, etc. Have you just tried taking something a little smaller and wiggle it around and seeing if the thing will start? Of course this is a Ford, and not a Chevy.

And perhaps something I should have started with. Do you have collision and comprehensive? Do you by any chance have replacement insurance? If you do, and the insurance company hasn’t come out yet, quickly get some gasoline and earn your truck up, and then tell him it was lost in the fire, and get a new one.

As always, my two cents, hope it helps
 
welll.... in this modern day of AI scraping and social media dredging and and... wouldn't do it now that someone posted it - insurance would kill him for insurance fraud
 
Ok, scratch that last one…
 

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