urgent!!ign sw rod/shift interlock? key wont turn

I have been searching,but burning daylight and need to go back out to look more-missed one day of work already and need help! last week it was way cold here and I had to force the key to turn it-felt resistance,tryed turning the wheel,pushing it "further"into park etc, and finally decided something was frozen and forced it. it has felt stiff since.last night I go to start it up and notice after it was fired up that the tumbler the key goes in was loose and I had no turn signals,fan motor or radio unless the key was in off position,when everything worked-I bought a new key and tumbler-got it in and had the same problem...bought an ignition switch-took the dash apart and was trying to see the rod going to the switch-at this point I had disconnected the shift interlock cable mount and dimmer switch on the column-tryed turning the key to watch for movement around the column but now the key wont move at all,the tumbler seems to be sucked into the column.the rod is free from the ign switch and I can see minimal movement at the key when moving the rod,but something is locked up.I drove the jeep to get the ign switch after the tumbler was installed,and it seems the key locked up when I removed the mount on the column for the shift cable-it is in lock position,yet I can shift out of park also-HELP!!!! edit to include>> I tried disconecting the shift cable at it's little ball joint connector at the column also-

I just went out to the jeep-tried moving the shifter-there is no movemnet of the cable at the column except for a little jerk when the shifter button is pushed-however,the key now turns-I operated the old ign switch and the new one by hand and call tell a huge differance between them and will proceed with installing it-the jeep looks like it puked all of it's wiring out from under the dash-I still love my XJ and will buy another,but times like this make me miss my old Willys jeep truck!

thanks for the downpour of help on this-something is still wrong but I can get to work tommorow it seems-

I cant understand what you are saying. Let me try to get this straight. Your Key dosnt turn? Or you cant get the key out? Lets start over and try to type slower so we can understand what the problem is. I am more than willing to help but I need the facts.

helps to know the year, not all jeeps came with the same column.

also, run on sentances are hard to read.

Try pressing the rod towards the steering wheel.

Ok Now first off have you taken the pressure off the lock and tried it that way? You most likely have to pull the lock out to do this. Second can you move the switch rod freely? When you say" it wont come out of lock do you mean the key doesnt pull out or you cant turn the key again. If you would like, I have a 87 Wagoneer limited. So they will be the same. I can pull it apart step by step with pics for you and we can walk through it together. I am sure it isnt a major problem just something in the wrong place. My bet is on the switch being installed incorrectly. Or the colum / wheel lock rod is jammed. Let me know. No sweat just be patiant we can get it fixed.