How to: Changing the antenna mast

[TheInterceptor]

Hello all!

After finding little information on changing antenna's nor any write ups and such.... going by what people have said ( remove splash guard, maybe the wheel and getcha hands up in there and such to access it) i thought i'd do a write up since i've just done it! This is for the electric antenna, not sure how it is for the manual one.


Okay. First things first, park your car with the front wheels on full lock left out where theres good light.



Now the way i did it involves removing the guard, i wasn't too crash hot on removing the wheel and splash guard so i removed the guard and only the ends of the splash guard. I've never done this before so i apologise if theres an easier way, but i found this was the easiest way for me (Perhaps you could undo the front of the splash guard and maybe get to the bolts at the front of the guard if that suits you better, you can have a looksee anyway!)

To remove the guard you have to remove the headlight..to remove the headlight you have to remove the grille. Removing both of these don't take long at all, infact its probably the fastest part of the job.

Picture below showing the fastners. All but one 13mm are 10mm's. (there are 3 scrivets holding the mudflap to the splash to the guard and another 3 holding the splash to the guard infront of the wheel. There is also one inside the arch behind the wheel on the engine wall if that makes sense. I didnt mark these, you will see them, you will get angry at them, try not to break all of them)

The circle on in the pic indicates where the grille clips into (same on the pass side light)...try not snap the grille where it clips in. Start with the grille then the light then the splash guard. Then the guard panel after that.



Once the grille and light are out, move onto the splash, you have to remove the aformentioned scrivets plus 2 screws under the bumper (i had one 7mm and one 8mm there).

Okay. Now that you've done that, undo the guard then pull it off. Now you have a nice and easy access to the antenna assembly.

Remove the fastners indicated below. (the very top had a silver screw on peice which i had removed prior to the photo)



Now the antenna assy is free but still has wiring attached to it. No worries. It's time to take it apart.

Start by undoing these, one 8mm and one screw.



Then undo this 7mm. (I did this before the last step as you can see in the pics, not a big deal)



You will find this underneath.



This is where the mast rope spools up in when the antenna is wound in. It just pulls off. Under the spool container there's a white piece that covers the mast rope guide wheel and drive gear from the electric motor. That pulls off also.

This is what you will see.
Next. Remove the screw that is marked below. That holds the antenna housing shaft to the main body.



Now you can pull out your old antenna mast and put your new one in.
Be sure to keep the bit of plastic indicated below.



I bought this Aerpro mast from Repco.



Feed the new mast into the housing then into the main body. Be sure to slip that peice of plastic mentioned before over the new rope.

Next step is to re align the mast housing and screw it back together. Once you have done this, by hand, extend the antenna to its maximum extention. At this stage, if your AU's radio is off, now is the time to turn it on but be sure that the new mast rope is not in the way of the main body's gears. Careful that the motor drive transfer gear doesnt get spat out when you do this!

So, lever the rope guide wheel out, sorta put it on the rope and slide it back onto its spindle. You'll know what i mean when you do it.
Now have it fed through around the large gear.

It should now look like this. (except with less rope showing, i didnt have it at full extention when i took the pic as i should have, also have the drive wheel off in this pic since it popped off earlier.)



Nows a good time to get rid of the old bits of broken mast from the spool container if you haven't already.



Now, replace the small white cover over the drive gear and guide wheel then feed the end of the rope mast into the spool container and fit the container back into its spindle. Fit the washers and put the black cover back on. Fit the 7mm nut up and it should work perfect now!

(If you wish, you can test to see if what you done works by just fitting the white cover over the gears then if you can stretch yourself enough, reach into the car and hit the power button on the radio. When you do so, hold your thumb on the white cover above where the drive transfer gear is! This is when it wants to pop off. Also make sure the rope has somewhere to go and doesnt get caught on anything while its being wound through.)

Right. So now the antenna is back together and working. Now its just a matter of putting everything back where they were.

And dont forget to screw the silver top peice back on.



Putting it all back together should be quicker than taking it all apart!

Hopefully i didn't miss anything and this has been helpfull!

Thanks!