You can drive it if you'd like. I drove mine for almost a year with the smell (no smoke, but close to it.) All the smoke is, is the plastic burning on the hot metal prong. You can see some of the blue plug on my old switch. I dont think anything will catch fire. Like I said I smelled mine everyday for almost a year, until I changed it last week. Not saying yours will last that long, but im just telling what i experienced.
Chiltons will not help (as always) with this project, because they are vauge.
You need to drop the lower portion of the dash, (dont forget the screw behind the ashtray) look up under the dash, you will see a rod going to a device at the 10 o clock position. That is the high/low beam switch. Remove that bolt, and the other bolt near it. The dimmer switch is now off, but tape that rod to the cloumn, or it will slide out, and is difficult putting back in.
Now that the two bolts you removed are for the ignition switch, there should be one more to remove, so remove that one. Then pull the ignition switch up off of the metal rod, (at the 12 o clock position on the column) unplug/inspect the plugs/wires and replace the plugs on the new one, place the switch on top of the rod, finger tighten the two bolts, and make sure the key works like its supposed to, if not, slide the switch back and forth till it is callibrated. When it is, crank down the bolts, replace the dimmer, replace its bolt, and replace the lower dash.
I typed that kinda fast, so if you need clarification, just let me know.