How to fix your electric antenna

[El Caballo]

After having my antenna destroyed this morning I went to the spares store and bought a replacement mast for the antenna. It really isn't a brain teaser but it will require time and above all else, patience.

Before being broken off, it never went all the way down anyway and that means that there was some of the white cord broken off inside the motor assembly. So, I had no choice but to get in there and take it all apart. You can do this with simple tools and determination.

A list of tools:

10mm combination wrench
pliers
needle nose pliers
adjustable wrench
philips screwdriver
flat blade screwdriver
1/4 drive extension
1/2 drive extension
hammer

This is what to look for in the store:

[El Caballo]

Jack up the car and patiently remove the three plastic screws that are holding the black plastic inner fender and mud guard in place on the passengers side of the car. You will need to use a flat blade screwdriver to help put some pressure on the threads by inserting the blade under the washer and turn the head of the screw with the philips if your screws had been taken out before like mine had. This is the most trying part of the procedure in my opinion, the rest is easy as pie.

Once the screws are out you can access inside the fender by moving the corner of the inner fender out the first thing you will see is the bracket holding the antenna in place. Unfasten the nut holding it in place and it can be easily persuaded to drop down into your hand by twisting and pulling down. Pull the grommet holding the wires/leads out of the body work so you can move it around easier.

At the top of the antenna you will see the chrome nut holding the retractable mast in place. Unscrew that, it has no real way to get any purchase on its little flat areas so just take some pliers and gently unscrew it. Be careful because the threads are brass, at least on mine they were. Pull the mast out if you can. I had to knock it out from behind using a cople of socket extensions stacked inside the tube. Unscrew the little bolt holding the tube in the motor body. Take out the white plastic guide and tube liner. Insert the extensions and hammer the antenna out from behind.

Since I knew that mine had to have some cord inside the motor assembly, I took the black side cover off (it has the little brass nut in the center, remove it) and the cover will come off with the spool inside it. Be careful because there are three washers that need to go between the black cover and the white spool. There is a white piece of plastic holding some pulleys in place be sure it stays there. I pulled the rest of the cable out and just reassmbled it, now it is ready to have the mast tube put back in and the screw at the base tightened.

Next unscrew the grounding strap from the bottom of the antenna body and hook that up to the first nut you unfastened and that will act as a ground.

Get someone to turn the ignition on and then the radio,m you will hear the motor runn out. String the cord in with the teeth facing the motor side. Ask the person in the car to turn off the radio and the motor will begin to retract the cord and have the base ready to slide into the tube. Be sure to put the nice chrome nut back on the top. Unfasten the nut holding the ground strap to the body and rescrew it back into the base of the antenna motor. Put the whole antenna assembly back in up through the fender and refasten the nut holding the bracket in place, push the grommet back in for the wiring.

Test and retest, done.

For whatever reason, I cannot upload the pictures right now, I'll try again later.

[crakrz]

Great write up, thanks for the info. Now I can do mine too.
-Craig

[Reaper8]

ya thanks for that, have to do mine aswell.

[Mr Hardware]

Nice writeup El Caballo!

Try uploading the pictures to another site (photobucket, imgur etc). I've changed an aerial before and it's a right pain.