Power antenna blowed up..
 

..not really.

Put the car in winter storage today and when I went to put it down, motor ran but the mast didn't budge...must have broken the plastic cable....how do you fix that?

Remove the motor and take the cover off the motor, get a cable tie and replace thee cable with it and put it all back together and you should be in good shape. Not hard just a pain in the butt. Now I need to tell you this was what I did to my 78 Pace car never did it to a C 2 before but it can not be that much different. :crazy:

Its a lot different on a 65-66 power antennae. If you have the original, its not a "plastic cable" like the newer styles. It will be a spiral wound metal cable that has rusted right thru and finally snapped off.

I've rebuilt a few of them, including my 65 and 66 ... they are both the same (except for the date code). The resident expert on these is Greg Thompson but I forget his handle on here. He can provide the parts you need and even has the waxy dip for the motor/winder case down pat. Good luck, Bill

Here ya go ... his site http://www.c2powerantenna.com/index.html
Cheers, Bill

My 65 motor ran, but the antenna didn't go down when I first got it. I had someone hold the switch in the down position and applied pressure down on the antenna shaft from the top. It caught and went down (it stays up about 13" when operating as normal, the bottom section doesn't collapse) and worked properly for years after that. I don't know what was sticking or slipping, but I was happy not to have to take it out.
Try cleaning the outside of the antenna shaft with alcohol so that it is slick and clean (don't oil) then put some pressure down while the motor is running in the down position. It doesn't cost anything and it just might work. Don't push hard enough to bend anything, but put good pressure on it.

I guess I'll have to pull it in the spring to see what is going on. I'm nowhere near enough of a purist to spend $400 to fix it. Never understood GM's idea of it being all the way down...and still UP a foot..what is the point in that?


Anybody replace theirs with a universal that goes all the way down?

Did you try what I suggested?

Mine did the same thing, so I ordered this:

http://www.zip-corvette.com/65-66-po...roduction.html

Haven't installed it - a project for later.

The original pwr antenna went in my '66 a few months ago and I rebuilt it. I just disassembled it all, lubed everything with clear silicone grease, and adjusted the lash screw on the outside bottom of the motor. I also cleaned the motor brushes with electrical spray and tested it before dropping it back down into the drive gear.

I noticed that Zip doesn't show a photo of the entire antenna mast. That's because just about every one I've seen doesn't have the groove around all 3 antenna mast sections as the originals do. And they don't quite get the acorn tip right either. But if you're not Top Flight, I'd just buy the manual one for @$60 from Corvette Central. It's as correct as you'll find (see pic below). And you'll save yourself $$$ and scraped knuckles (unless you have side exhaust!).
http://www.parts123.com/corvettecentral/dyndetail.pta?catalog=0000050b&ukey=3526 5"]http://www.parts123.com/corvettecent...50b&ukey=35265[/URL]

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...a77d64c144.jpg

I will next chance I get, it's hibernating right now...