Hey everyone I have a 2002 Chevy carmao 3.8l and today I got to work and turned my car off and realized that none of my accessories when off so i tried to start it back up and nothing happened the key just freely spent so I figured it was the ignition lock cylinder so I bought another new one and had the vats put on it by a lock Smith. I removed the old ignition cylinder. When comparing it to the new cylinder, they look exactly the same. However, when the new cylinder was placed, we still have the same problem of freely spinning ignition and vehicle accessories on. Could something else be broken? Thanks for any input

 

check to make sure the shaft to the switch is ok. switch is on th steering column down by your feet.

 

Yes, Craby is completely right. I don't know how exactly GM made it on 98-02 f-bodies, but on my '95 Camaro Z28 there is such a good thing - ignition switch. It is a part made of plastic and metal bracket and attached to the steering column shaft. It is controlled by the long rod attached directly to your ignition cylinder that you have probably replaced. And when you turn your key clockwise to start your engine the lock cylinder pulls the rod and it switches electric leads in the ignition switch so all your accessories are now working. So it maybe the situation when this rod lose the connection either with the lock cylinder or with that ignition switch. If so, you just want to reconnect it. It will be a little bit tricky to do it on a ignition switch side.
Another one issue is when your ignition switch has worn out and its leads has soldered together and even when the rod tries to disconnect them it doesn't do anything and accesories still working.
Shoebox's website has much enough info about how to change the ignition switch on '95 Z28 and similar cars.
98-02 f-body guys, please correct me if I wrong.