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Before I received my new antenna mast, wouldn’t ya know the nylon ribbon broke. It was only just slipping at first. So I removed the old mast and looked under the car at the antenna looking at how in came out and saw the other half of the ribbon just laying in the wheel well under the antenna assembly. There looks to be a hole at the bottom of the antenna where I could only guess it came out of.
The break of the two pieces match up exactly. I measured the old mast length compared to the new mast length and the new was longer. But it doesn’t look as far as I can tell there is any ribbon missing from the piece I found.(?)
I went ahead and installed the new mast as per proper procedure. It went just as instructions indicated however the antenna does not completely go down. It sticks up about 4 inches.
Either there is a restriction in the antenna assembly, or the nylon ribbon is to long. I don’t know what the proper length should be. I would rather not remove the antenna assembly if I do not have to and save myself a day of work. (would rather change a water pump).
Having said all this, looking for any information that might give me some direction as to what I might need to do. On the road this week so have lots of time to talk about it.
I would suugest pulling the cover off of the motor to clean out the gear area. There might be an old piece of ribbon in there. If you remove the rear wheel and splash shield, then access is possible. Clean out the inside and put some petroleum jelly in there. Put it all back together and feed the antenna.
I don't know if there are ribbon length differences from year to year. My experience was with an '89 antenna.
drop the antenna out the bottom of the fenderwell and support on a milk crate or similar. carefully dismantle the motor housing. in doing so, you'll find a piece of broken ribbon laying at the bottom of the "gear chamber", remove it.
lube up the gear and associated works and channels. if i can recall, you can install the entire mast assembly right where you are at. be careful as there is a "cam" in the unit that tells the unit how long to run and when to shut down. reinstall the entire assembly back into the fender well and reinstall the "grommet" at the top where the mast/antenna assemble goes through to the outside. you then should be good to go.
When I installed the replacement mast it also initially stuck above the fender by about 3" to 4". I had to do the on-off-on-off radio thing a few times until the new mast finally seated properly. Did you already try this (it helps if you have another person to do the radio while you fiddle with the mast).
Before I received my new antenna mast, wouldn’t ya know the nylon ribbon broke. It was only just slipping at first. So I removed the old mast and looked under the car at the antenna looking at how in came out and saw the other half of the ribbon just laying in the wheel well under the antenna assembly. There looks to be a hole at the bottom of the antenna where I could only guess it came out of.
The break of the two pieces match up exactly. I measured the old mast length compared to the new mast length and the new was longer. But it doesn’t look as far as I can tell there is any ribbon missing from the piece I found.(?)
I went ahead and installed the new mast as per proper procedure. It went just as instructions indicated however the antenna does not completely go down. It sticks up about 4 inches.
Either there is a restriction in the antenna assembly, or the nylon ribbon is to long. I don’t know what the proper length should be. I would rather not remove the antenna assembly if I do not have to and save myself a day of work. (would rather change a water pump).
Having said all this, looking for any information that might give me some direction as to what I might need to do. On the road this week so have lots of time to talk about it.
NEW mast sticks up 4 inches huh? Interesting. My OLD one does.
And how do you get that rubber skirt off, to inspect, before buyin' unnecessary parts?
Just an observation but it looks like most of the Tech Tips regarding the antenna end up addressing complete removal of the assembly. This should not be necessary if the only problem is a bum mast, which should be a 10 minute job.
Just an observation but it looks like most of the Tech Tips regarding the antenna end up addressing complete removal of the assembly. This should not be necessary if the only problem is a bum mast, which should be a 10 minute job.
Doug
if you have a broken piece of mast ribbon in the "gear chamber", it will surely be necessary to do this!
I would suugest pulling the cover off of the motor to clean out the gear area. There might be an old piece of ribbon in there. If you remove the rear wheel and splash shield, then access is possible. Clean out the inside and put some petroleum jelly in there. Put it all back together and feed the antenna.
I don't know if there are ribbon length differences from year to year. My experience was with an '89 antenna.
I have now removed the antenna from the car. Pealed back the rubber boot and found all the covers are riveted on. Has anyone else had the rivets or is screws the norm. Looks like drilling the round face rivets out will probably make a mess of things and then how do I reassemble.
Good success into new territory. Everything worked out really well. I opened the antenna, found a piece of ribbon inside, cleaned it, lubed it, and reassembled. Installed the new antenna, it went down properly and all works normal. This all really worked out well.
Giving the unit a good visual I realized the rivets were plastic. So I drilled the heads off slightly and finished it with a dremel tool. Then I drilled a 1/16” hole in each of the plastic studs. Then got the smallest self tapping screw I had and added a couple of washers. I then had to go up to the next size 3/32 for the screws to prevent breaking the plastic as I screwed it in.
I cant be the only one who had had this situation. Perhaps this may help some others. Took many hours to do all this but saved several hundred dollars. Here are some pix of my progress. Also, installing the rubber grummet back with the wires back into the hole was no big deal.
Antenna mast installation problem
