Antenna problems....

When my antenna is going up it makes it all the way out put when it tries to pull the last piece out it makes this weird grinding noise and i have to pull it a little and then it releases the rest of the way out. It is almost like it is getting stuck. When i try to put it down i have to push it a little and then it goes down by its self. What should i do?

When my antenna is going up it makes it all the way out put when it tries to pull the last piece out it makes this weird grinding noise and i have to pull it a little and then it releases the rest of the way out. It is almost like it is getting stuck. When i try to put it down i have to push it a little and then it goes down by its self. What should i do?



sounds like you need a replacement aerial mast, you will probably find you have some teeth stripped on the plastic antenna cable that runs inside the mast.

its easy to replace, but you do need two of you.

if you dont know how, let me know and i will explain.

regards

brian



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I was thinking that there were teeth missing like you said and that is why it works in some parts and not others. I do have a couple of questions. Where might i find this part? How much might it be? How do i install it? Thanks.

http://www.3sxperformance.com/stock.asp

scroll down to the bottom...37 bucks

I was thinking that there were teeth missing like you said and that is why it works in some parts and not others. I do have a couple of questions. Where might i find this part? How much might it be? How do i install it? Thanks.


ok,

first of all you need a 2nd person with you.

what you need to do is get yourself a tin of wd40 and a 13mm or 1/2" spanner.

undo the nut at the top of the aerial and remove it so the mast is loose,

once that is done you need to do this next step in one smooth swift motion.

get your buddie to turn the stereo on so the aerial starts to go up, while this is happenening, pull gently up the aerial with your hand and keep pulling till eventually the whole aerial and plastic teeth are out of the aerial body.

once you have done that just check the very end of the white plastic teeth, hopefully you will have a smoothed off edge on it.

if it is sharp or jagged, you have got a problem, you will need to take the main aerial body out of the car which is a pain in the butt, (cos you have to strip out the boot interior panel to get to it,) take the aerial body to pieces so you can retrieve the broken piece inside, but from the way you have explained it i dont think your will be broken, just stripped.
fingers crossed!!!!!!

if the end is ok, you need to get the new mast and feed it down the aerial body until it stops at the bottom. this is done with stereo still turned on
then you get your buddie to turn the stereo off, at this point the teeth must catch the motor straight away and start to feed itself into the aerial. if it doesnt it wont go completely all the way down and you need to start the process again by turning the stereo back on again and pulling it back out again.always wait for the motor in the aerial to stop each time
it took me a few attempts to get it right but once you catch it right it will rectract completely, make sure you feed the mast in and it doesnt catch the top of the aerial body or you may break the new one.
once you have done that tighten the 13mm nut back up, spray the mast with some wd40 so its lubricated and you are done.

hope this helps.

brian.



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you could do that OR............. rip the bludy thing OFF, get a nice new up to date short rubber one and attach it to the top of your roof - like im doing. the antenna only gets bent back in the wind at speed/ caught in the car wash/wont go down or ripped off by some drunk guy. Anyway, it interfers with the beautiful curves of the wonderful automobile

I have an update on my antenna problem...

I went to pull out the old antenna and it wouldnt come so i ended up pulling to hard and the white band broke and about a foor of it was left inside. I had to take apart my entire trunk and tear out the motor take that out open and pull out the piece that was inside and reesemble everything. Ended up taking me about 2 1/2 hours. O well the new one works great.

Thanks for the help....

Glad to hear it's at least functioning again.