I ran into a similar situation a long time ago. I had a dodge and someone stole it, by punching out the ignition. So long story short I replaced the whole damn column for whatever reason from a junkyard car, and when it came to the ignition cylinder, I ended up taking it to a locksmith and he got it out for me for 5 bucks. What he did was take a blank key for that particular model and kept jamming it in the cylinder to make marks on the blank where the tumblers were, and filed it down accordingly until it turned. Then when it turned, I simply turned it to on, and pressed the little button on the column and it came out. The explorer cylinders come on the same way, the little button is on the bottom of the column. btw, MAKE SURE you unhook the negative on the battery before removing it or it will set off the PATS system if you have one. Hope this helps!
