How ironic. I was just surfing through a Mopar mag from a few months back, and saw a 71 Charger that was owned by the Mr Heaterbox guy. I had never heard of them before. Still know nothing. Canadian, I guess.
Hopefully you still have the same key for the doors and ignition. If so, pull a door panel and pull the lock cylinder retainer and attachment hardware loose, and pull the cylinder out. Take it to a locksmith and they can make you a key. Way cheaper than calling them out.
You can pull the...
The neutral safety switch is "pushed" from inside the transmission. The column linkage has nothing to do with it.
When the neutral safety switch is in park or neutral, it grounds a terminal on your starter relay, allowing the relay to pass current to the starter solenoid, which engages the...
Oh, EAST Texas. I'm sorry. Actually, I know nothing about East Texas. Plus, according to most of the world, you spelled the word correctly. It's just for Mopar stuff that you add the "e" at the end.
Hey, trade me your Duster for my Demon.
You can convert your distributor to electronic with a kit from Pertronix, or like someone else said, you can convert it with pieces from a parts store. I'd pice it together, myself. It's pretty cheap.
Or one of your field wires could have worn through due to vibration and is grounding out, causing the alternator to put out 100%. Or the alternator itself could have had an internal issue causing the same issue. You might want to pull the brushes and clean them up or replace them. Don't lose...
Did you actually check with any parts stores? It's an easily available part. You say "ignition switch", but you talk about going to a locksmith. Are you actually after the lock cylinder, the actual ignition switch, or both units together? They are separate parts.
Anyway, I went onto...