Power Antenna Replacement

[chuck]

Spent the afternoon replacing the power antenna on my 82. Got a replacement from Amazon that looked similar. However, looking similar doesn't mean much. First the mount for the body was just barely bigger than the hole in the body-played around and found I could use the old antenna's mounting plate on new antenna. However, the antenna then sat too high and it's mounting bolt would bottom out before tightening on the body. A trip to the old bolt/nut/washer collection turned up two washers that took up the space perfectly. The antenna looks like it was always there. Then I got into the electrical hookup-my car had a switch on the lower left of the dash that controlled the up/down of the old antenna. Even though the new one used three wires like the old one, there was no way to get the old circuitry to operate the new antenna. A few years ago I put a Custom Audio Sound radio in the car and I remembered it had a wire for antenna control I didn't use. pulled the tray in the middle of the dash out and there was the wire. I jumpered it over to the old antenna switch. I decided to repurpose the wires in harness at this point. Hooked the yellow 12volt wire to the brown with white stripe to power the antenna,and the yellow antenna control wire to the blue with white stripe. At the back I hooked the antenna to the appropriate repurposed harness wires and use the old ground that was back there. Wahla!. I turned the radio on and the antenna went up-turned the radio off and the antenna went down. I took the old switch out and taped up the unused wires, prettied up the wiring and called it a successful day!!!

chuck

RQB-3553

Edited April 3, 2016 by chuck