It's been a long time since I had to deal with this, maybe 15 yrs, but I remember replacing the ignition lock cylinder. I had the "car won't turn off" problem. There's also an intermediate shaft between the lock cylinder and the electrical ignition switch. If you remove that ignition switch, you'll see the tip of it, as it engages the switch. Sometimes, that intermediate shaft will break, as it's a lightweight casting. Here are some links to articles in the knowledge base:
http://318ti.org/forum/showthread.ph...light=ignition http://318ti.org/forum/showthread.ph...light=ignition Also, if you search on "e36 ignition lock", there's lots out there, several youtube videos, some stuff on bimmerforums.
Ultimately, you're going to have to do the diagnosis, the videos and such will help you as to what you're looking at. I would bet that it's not the electrical switch, which pretty much leaves either the shaft or the lock. It's a fairly complicated assembly, and you might look it up on realoem.com, just to see the parts breakdown. Keep us informed.
Paul
'96ti 237,000mi