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hey guys working on my sons 81. got a universal power antenna. the antenna has black, red, blue and coax. coming out of the rear grommet are yellow white and brown and coax. I know black is ground and coax are easy enough but I cant get the antenna to work no matter what position the red/blue are connected to the yellow/brown. continuity test showed closed circuit on yellow and white wires coming from the car but not on the brown. Relay problem? he absolutely has to have period correct for some reason so its a thing now. any advice would be helpful.
First I'd test the antenna by itself. Black to ground, red to +12V, when the blue is connected to +12 the antenna should go up, remove the power from the blue and the antenna should go down. The red is constant power as the antenna needs to keep going down with the key is turned off
M
Also looks like there's a relay in the compartment behind the seats, see the link and post #2
M
Info in that old thread is questionable......
As is the wires at the fender won't work.
And check the colors, look a bit closer.
I also have a feeling the factory co ax cable will not attach to your aftermarket antenna.
Now, if you want to hack up the wires
The factory relay for 81 is in the battery compartment. Look for white, grey, green, orange, yellow(may be pink) and black wires.
The orange is constant hot, always.
Yellow(or pink)is antenna trigger.
Black is ground.
Now..........snip everything. Remove relay, not needed.
Attach each of the green, gray, white wires to the black, orange, yellow(or pink)
Keeping track of what wire at the rear fender attached to what wire from the front, now you can use them to connect to the antenna.
For instance, connect orange to green, remember now at the fender green is now hot wire. Connect yellow(pink?) to gray, remember now gray is trigger. Connect white to black, white will be ground.
Determine which wire from your antenna is power, trigger, and ground.
I'm embarrassed to say I did this install for a guy a while back at his insistence.
So I ran the test on the antenna and found that it doesn't work. So were ordering new parts and trying again. thanks for all the help.
Now's your chance to convince your son that the cartoonish radio antenna doesn't belong on the car. In my 79, music comes from a USB stick or phone Bluetooth. My 80 has audio deleted. No antennas in either, of course.
power antenna
