EL Fairmont power antenna problem

[drubie]

Wife says it is making horrible noises and no longer rises.

There is a strange button on the dashboard that looks like it should lift the antenna to two different places, although the antenna used to not retract all the way so we're not quite sure what it is supposed to do.

Any suggestions on the easiest fix for this? Do Ford still stock them and how much are they? The motor is apparently still working, but no action from the antenna itself.

Any help appreciated.

[niko]

i think its just gone. and would need to be replaced. you can disconect the motor, and yank it out of its socket so you can atleast still use it

[ELAV8]

Hello,

The button on your dashboard is meant to make the antenna go halfway and then all of the way up.
Even though your motor may still be fine. It sounds like the actual wire thing that goes up inside the antenna is broken. This is very common for these automatic antenna's to break.
You can get universal antennas from most car shops (supercheap autos, auto 1 etc). I think they are about $40-$100.00) They would probably be around the same price at Ford.

[OED666]

you can also buy a replacement mast for about $27.. extremely easy to fit...

take the LHF wheel off, remove the inner guard cover... unscrew the aerial, (now the tricky bit is undoing the bolt at the top of the guard)

then you just unscrew the aerial, taking note of where each screw goes, and then pull out the old aerial, and replace it with the new... and put it back together...

[Jet-Star]

^^ Exactly, Buy ya self what they call a "rope and mast" for about $27-$30 (Instead of paying like $100+ for a new hole aerial) Usually what happens is that when the aerial gets a bit bent it makes it hard on the motor and since the plastic teeth on the "rope" are only week they strip.

[malazn mafia]

had a similar problem. My antenna wouldnt retract, just made grinding noises. anyway, what I basically did was remove the wheel, the guard cover and undo the antenna. (had to jack the car up quite a lot to make the unretracted antenna clear the concrete). Then took the antenna inside, removed the screw in the middle of a circular shaped black part (mechanism for retracting antenna). One u get that open you will find that there is a white ribbed plastic strip which wraps around a plastic gear wheel. What usually happens with these over time is that the plastic strip gets out of line with the gear wheel. What u basically need to do is get the plastic strip to wrap around the wheel nicely. It might help to connect the winder motor to a 12V power supply to get the plastic strip wrapped around the plastic gear, as well as test operation of the power antenna (reverse the power connection to make the winder motor move either way).

[drubie]

Originally Posted by Jesse06

^^ Exactly, Buy ya self what they call a "rope and mast" for about $27-$30 (Instead of paying like $100+ for a new hole aerial) Usually what happens is that when the aerial gets a bit bent it makes it hard on the motor and since the plastic teeth on the "rope" are only week they strip.

Okay,

Thanks for all the replies.

a new "rope and mast" it is.

cheers,

dave.

[Spak]

I love looking for an answer to a problem, then finding someone else with the exact same issue. Saves so much hassle when ya don't have to ask a single question