Antenna party

A friend of mine, and I had an antenna party on Saturday. We both replaced broken cable antennas with working ones. It took about 5 hours to do a 1-2 hour job. Stupid issues, and errors were abounding. We did get both installed, and both work. Had a good time, and one less project to do. It is a little difficult to remove, the antenna with the mast up, but I never cut the mast, because there are no more available.

I am probably going to rebuild both of the antennas using steel cables instead of nylon. They should last a lifetime. I may consider selling a couple of them for about $175 each, with the return of an antenna with a good mast.

fred, that sounds like a big job! did you take inner fender cover off or somehow wiggle it out thru the pass compartment? my antenna goes up and not down.still have good reception and all for radio . it being up all the time hinders my car cover on/off routine. mike in ocala 95 Roadie wagon

If you remove all of the bolts/screws up to the battery tray, you can pry the wheelhouse away from the car far enough to get the antenna out/in. You must also remove the screw in the door frame, and the bezel on the top. There is a special tool for removing the bezel. The tool is in the $10-20 range. The finial on the top of the last segment is screwed on. I removed it by clamping the mast in a smooth vice, and used a small crescent wrench to turn the finial.

Repairing the antenna is another issue in itself. I am currently testing a repair with a steel cable in place of the nylon one. I removed the cable, burned the nylon out of the stainless ends, and bent the crimps until a 1/8 inch cable will fit to the bottom of the end. I used a 37 inch cable, and after cleaning in alcohol, used JBWeld to secure the ends. I filled the end with it, and put some on the cable up to the depth of the end. I inserted the cable in the hook end following the curve of the cable, and removed the excess JBWeld. After allowing it to cure overnight, I did the top section of the antenna, and allowed it to cure overnight.

Disconnect the antenna now, so you do not burn out the motor. You must remove the rivets from  the motor case to repair the antenna, and use machine screws, and nuts to reassemble the case. I use a piece of a nylon threaded spacer for the center of the drum hole. You should also clean the parts and relube them with grease. There should be a sector filled gear at the top of the drum, and it must be in one position. Assemble the antenna with the mast up, the filled tooth must be in the position to block the tab on the drum from turning further than when the hook is at the bottom of the drum. Usually about 1:00 or a little after. The rest is self explanatory. You may want to put just a little more tension on the brushes while you have it apart.

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Good stuff, Fred. Nice to see people taking the time to figure this stuff out.

I've had it on my car for 5 days, and it works like it should. I think it is going to keep working. If you have an antenna with a good mast and motor, and want me to fix it, I will for $175. Turn around time is about 1-2 weeks. It should never break the cable again...the motor may wear out, but the cable will not break.

Pisser is I have 2 with broken masts. I know the Buick sedan one is different but are the masts the same? I have one of those somewhere

No the masts are not the same. The sedan is a 3 section, and the Wagon is a 4 section, and are not interchangeable.

It's 2020, I have no use for an Antenna, lol.

Regular radio is abysmal with it's near constant commercials, annoying hosts and very limited play list that is the same few songs on every channel. Here in Ocala we have 3 channels. An old rock station that mostly plays the terrible stuff from the 70s. A horrible Pop music station and a horrible New Country station.

Thanks to the beauty of Spotify my cellphone is my Antenna

Another project I have to do on the wife's wagon! She sourced a supposedly/hopefully good replacement assembly. The current antenna broke in the up position... I'm pretty sure it is just a broken cable as the motor still works. One of these days I will swap them and then try and do a repair to the broken one to have as a spare.

94Woody wrote:

It's 2020, I have no use for an Antenna, lol.

Regular radio is abysmal with it's near constant commercials, annoying hosts and very limited play list that is the same few songs on every channel. Here in Ocala we have 3 channels. An old rock station that mostly plays the terrible stuff from the 70s. A horrible Pop music station and a horrible New Country station.

Thanks to the beauty of Spotify my cellphone is my Antenna

And the beauty of using your cellphone is that if you do have a favorite local radio station, most broadcast on the internet via numerous free radio apps. That way no matter where you are you can still listen to your station. I listen to Green Bay Packers games on Wisconsin local stations down here in Savannah. Go Pack!

Hi All. I'm looking for a little guidance on this power antenna repair and this seems like the place. My antenna mast is bent to hell. It's stuck in the 3/4 up position. I had to disconnect the motor because it was running continuously in a futile attempt to retract the mast.

I bought the complete power antenna kit from Antenna Source (foolishly thinking this would be a simple swap-out fix) I less than thrilled to find the antenna connection had to be made at the radio. I got as far as taking my dash face off and removing the radio. At that point I backed off the job and put everything back together. The antenna lead is taped in a bundle with a hundred other wires and I can't see where it goes through the firewall. I didn't want to start tearing into that without some guidance. My questions are:

1. Do I need to make the connection at the radio? (or is there a way--with an adapter for example--to hook the antenna up at the motor?)

2. To access the motor itself (and remove it) do you need to go in through the engine compartment from up above, or the wheel well from below? Or both? What actually needs to be removed to get in there?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks,

Phil

The removal was covered in the third post in this thread. I have never installed an aftermarket antenna. 

You must remove the OEM antenna from below. Unbolt the wheelhouse up to the extension. 

Disconnect the 3 wire connector, and the antenna coaxial cable. Remove the antenna bezel, and the 10mm screw in the front door jam. Pry the wheelhouse out until you can reach up, and remove the antenna. 

The aftermarket antennas are not a direct fit. You may be able to use the OEM coax cable by attaching the new antenna to it. I do not know if there are adapter connectors for the antenna connector to OEM cable. An car audio shop might be able to help you with that. The connector for the automatic retract will require replacement of one, or the other.

If you get the cable, and mast from the same place, you can repair your OEM antenna. The only issue I have encountered is the life of the new cable. They last about 6 months to a year. As I stated above, I am contemplating making some cable units with steel cables instead of nylon...for a price. I am not looking to make a job of repairing antennas. If you were to send me an antenna with a good mast, I may consider doing a repair. I can also consider making a new cable if someone sends both ends of the broken cable to me. You can save some money by doing the rest of the work yourself.

UrbanPhil wrote:

Hi All.  I'm looking for a little guidance on this power antenna repair and this seems like the place.  My antenna mast is bent to hell.  It's stuck in the 3/4 up position.  I had to disconnect the motor because it was running continuously in a futile attempt to retract the mast.

I bought the complete power antenna kit from Antenna Source (foolishly thinking this would be a simple swap-out fix) I less than thrilled to find the antenna connection had to be made at the radio.  I got as far as taking my dash face off and removing the radio.  At that point I backed off the job and put everything back together.  The antenna lead is taped in a bundle with a hundred other wires and I can't see where it goes through the firewall.  I didn't want to start tearing into that without some guidance.  My questions are:

1. Do I need to make the connection at the radio? (or is there a way--with an adapter for example--to hook the antenna up at the motor?)

2. To access the motor itself (and remove it) do you need to go in through the engine compartment from up above, or the wheel well from below? Or both? What actually needs to be removed to get in there?

Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks,

Phil

You can use an adapter for the antenna cable at the mast base so you don't have to run the cable all the way into the car.  The adapter is a Metra Electronics part number 40-GM18.

RadioFlyer--thank you. That's the best news I heard all day.

UrbanPhil wrote:

RadioFlyer--thank you.  That's the best news I heard all day.

Glad to help. Tripped over that info on another members post. I was glad to find it too because I'm in the same antenna boat. Remember if you go with an aftermarket radio you will have to get another adapter for the antenna inside.

I have a broken antenna bezel (looks like it split in two and one half is long gone) - any suggestions on a replacement piece that will fit a 95 RMW?

I have a couple extra bezels. I would take $12 for one shipped.

You may have to use some "freeze off" to help dig the remaining piece out of the outer mast.

I consider myself very lucky that my antenna still works fine. But, like others, I have a modern radio, and only listen to podcasts, NPR, or a favorite station in another state. I just disconnected mine under the hood, and wrapped both of the leads to keep water from getting inside of them. Of course I disconnected it with the antenna down!