How To Replace The Car Stereo Antenna

[Crazy G]

How to replace the car stereo Antenna

Hi guys I have a R33 series II and the antenna is broken. It wont go up at all I think It was broken when It was up. ( it was like this when I got the car) anyways when you turn the stereo ON/OFF I can hear some sotta noise like when you get when the antenna go up or down. I want to remove the antenna and put a new one in. I don’t know how to remove it I tried few times but couldn’t.

Have anyone done this before? Have you guys replaced the antenna before? If so can you please help me out and tell me how to do this. I would really like you hear the radio once in awhile. miss the radio. If you can put some pic of how to do this it would be so good.

I will appreciate all you replies and help.

Thanks heaps guys.

Edited July 5, 2006 by Crazy G

[Chris Rogers]

find a mast and replace teh mast only. remove the antenna assy then dismantle it , remove the rope , pull out the broken mast and then put it back together. refit and reconnect. turn radio on wait for motor to go all the way up and insert new mast. turn radio off. then guide mast into place. done.

if you are unsure post up pics of the antenna assy and I'll walk you through it.

Edited July 5, 2006 by Chris Rogers

[Crazy G]

find a mast and replace teh mast only. remove the antenna assy then dismantle it , remove the rope , pull out the broken mast and then put it back together. refit and reconnect. turn radio on wait for motor to go all the way up and insert new mast. turn radio off. then guide mast into place. done.

if you are unsure post up pics of the antenna assy and I'll walk you through it.

Thanks mate… I will take some pics and post them. I am still having difficulties getting to the antenna to remove it. its very hard to put the hand in there … not enough room. May be there is another way you know. I will take pic so that you know what I am talking about. Thanks again for you help.

G

[$weetDreamZ]

I see that this is a common problem. I tried doing this today. Got the rope to engage on the gears inside the assembly but the part that I'm having difficulty with is inserting the mast. It doesn't fit into the mast holder of the main antenna assembly as there is a small brass ring at the base of the new mast that won't go into the mast holder. I'm using the aerpro universal mast AP12 that many have recommended.

Would it be worth trying to insert the mast through the bottom end of the mast holder, getting the rope to engage and then inserting the mast holder back into the antenna assembly? Is this what others have done? If you do do it this way can you still get the antenna assembly back into position with the new mast in there as well?

Thanks for any help people can give.

[RANDY]

I didn't quite follow what you wanted to do...

Did you get the rest of the broken antenna out?

I did this twice on other model cars, and I don't know if it will be the same but i'll tell you how I did it incase it helps.

(this is done without removing the antenna motor assembly out of the car)

1) Remove the rest of the dead antenna mast. Pull it up with a pair of pliers while a friend turns the radio on. The motor should push most of the rest out.

2) New mast has a long rope on it, feed as much as you can into the hole while the radio is still on. (HU thinks antenna is up)

3) Have your friend turn the radio off, and you keep pushing the rope in. The motor should grab the rope and pull the mast into the assembly.

4) Done. It took me all of 30 minutes to work that out and get it done on my last car.

The proper/safe way is to remove the motor assembly out of the car (via the boot), strip the assembly open, remove old and replace with new.

If your new mast doesn't physically fit in the assembly, then you've got the wrong one.

[$weetDreamZ]

Randy, thanks for your advice. The area I was having problems with when doing it without removing the assembly from the car was that I couldn't get the new mast into the assembly as it was too thick. I managed to figure it out. These are the steps that I took, it involved removing the antenna assembly from the car:

1. Remove the antenna assembly from the car.

2. Dismantle antenna assembly (undo 6 screws holding it together), give all the components a wipe down and remove any water, WD40 is great for this! At this point remove the hollow pole that holds the mast in place (what I call the mast holder).

3. Grease the gears and everything else.

4. Put all the components of the assembly back together except for the mast holder.

5. Loosely do up 4 of the screws that hold the antenna assembly together. At this stage do not do up the 2 screws on the mast holder side of the assembly.

6. Insert the new mast and rope into the mast holder from the bottom. It probably won't go all the way up but that's ok.

7. Now plug the power back into the antenna assembly and turn the head unit on so that the motor winds upwards.

8. From here it is much like everyone else says, insert the rope and turn the head unit off so the rope engages the gears and pulls the new mast into the antenna assembly.

9. Push the mast holder and mast into the antenna assembly where it normally resides. Make sure it is orientated the correct way so that it will fit into the car.

10. Connect everything else back to the assembly and reinstall it into the car.

I forgot to bring my camera with me today so I didn't get to take any pics of my hard work but if anyone needs help with this just drop me a message!

[RANDY]

Ah yeah, you added some greasing to the steps ;o)

[Chris Rogers]

good idea too. htey usually need a bit after years of wear and tear.

also noted you pulled it apart to get all the trash out of it.

[$weetDreamZ]

Oh yeah, my bf doesn't call me a grease monkey for nothing! haha

When I unplugged the drain pipe water kept pouring out of the assembly for a while. At a guess I think the gear housing was completely full. Sprayed plenty of WD40 to get rid of any water that got on the electrical circuit. The assembly used to make a grinding noise when I turned the radio on/off but now I can't hear it at all.

Thanks for all the help peepz!