Anyone have any pictures from when they installed their switch to keep the antenna down on their verts? The splicing sounds easy, but everyone tends to end their mod descriptions there without a word of how they ran the wires back to under the center console, etc.

I'm a new vette owner, and i'm not familiar at all with how to pull the carpet up/take the center console apart so that I can set a switch up in there.

If anyone has any further pics or descriptions of this mod, i'd love to hear it. That antenna is by far one of my biggest complaints of the car i've yet to find. Why GM couldn't have made a single different solder on the head unit when making this setup baffles me.

Thanks in advance for any help guys. This really is a great forum for information!

 

 

come on...i know you guys are out there!

 

My old T/A had a power antenna, which I didnt care for. I spliced a switch into the appropriate wire right behind the head unit. I eventually ditched the entire power antenna for a stationary one and shortened it.

 

This link will help you get the console apart. I didn't fully pull up the carpet. I used a fish tape (like a strong wire) get a wires from the antenna connection in the trunk. I put a rocker switch under the lid in the center console (next to the power outlet). Good luck.

 

I like the placement of the switch that the fella on spdkilz has...it's about perfect. If you were to place the switch there, which way would be the best to go with the wiring...forward then behind the A/C console/etc then around the passenger footwell, or going straight on back behind the center console, then behind the carpet of the passenger seat?

How did everyone else do this?

Thanks for the replies so far, all!

 

So I went to radio shack today and bought a 10amp switch for the antenna bypass. Found out that the antenna has a 20amp fuse. As far as my understanding goes with fuses, I should be safe using a 10amp fuse to control the antenna, shouldn't I? I know it's only rated at 1/2 the amps that the fuse is, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to overload the switch.

What do all of you electricians out there think?

 

If you choose to upgrade your head unit to a NAV/DVD/MP3 player, you can program the new unit to raise/lower the antenna only when the radio is being used and not when CDs/DVDs or MP3s are playing.

 

As tempting as that sounds, i like to try to keep things as stock as possible. IMO, a switch for the antenna should have been OEM anyway...either that or the antenna should have been programmed correctly to only come up when the radio is on, not the CD player.

Thanks tho!

 

Well, I just finished up doing the antenna mod...works like a charm! Here's a pic of my placement...sorry of the crudity...it was taken with a cell phone in the dark lol.



I was a little iffy about drilling the 3/4" hole into the console at first, but once it faced up, it looked bone stock! Couldn't be happier with the install!

Honestly, one of the biggest pains was routing the wire under the carpet...having the waterfall with the vert didn't make it any easier (btw, for those of you with verts, the waterfall MUST be removed to take the console out).

All said and done I spent about 2 hours. Coulda prolly been done in one but i double and triple checked everything to insure i wasn't gonna have any problems.

I was a little surprised that when you flick the switch on then turn it off while the antenna is going up, it comes back down. I was initially thinking it would stop 1/2 mast but no...it retracts. Oh well, awesome mod all the same, with a stock-look yet to boot.

For those of you that just unplugged your antenna, you'd be surprised what kinda difference the antenna makes when it's up. Made a HUGE one for me in terms of reception! I'd highly suggest this mod to ANY C5 owner!

Any other pics out there of their installs? I was really hoping for more of a turnout here!