How to: Changing the antenna mast

[TheInterceptor]

Hello all!

After finding little information on changing antenna's nor any write ups and such.... going by what people have said ( remove splash guard, maybe the wheel and getcha hands up in there and such to access it) i thought i'd do a write up since i've just done it! This is for the electric antenna, not sure how it is for the manual one.


Okay. First things first, park your car with the front wheels on full lock left out where theres good light.



Now the way i did it involves removing the guard, i wasn't too crash hot on removing the wheel and splash guard so i removed the guard and only the ends of the splash guard. I've never done this before so i apologise if theres an easier way, but i found this was the easiest way for me (Perhaps you could undo the front of the splash guard and maybe get to the bolts at the front of the guard if that suits you better, you can have a looksee anyway!)

To remove the guard you have to remove the headlight..to remove the headlight you have to remove the grille. Removing both of these don't take long at all, infact its probably the fastest part of the job.

Picture below showing the fastners. All but one 13mm are 10mm's. (there are 3 scrivets holding the mudflap to the splash to the guard and another 3 holding the splash to the guard infront of the wheel. There is also one inside the arch behind the wheel on the engine wall if that makes sense. I didnt mark these, you will see them, you will get angry at them, try not to break all of them)

The circle on in the pic indicates where the grille clips into (same on the pass side light)...try not snap the grille where it clips in. Start with the grille then the light then the splash guard. Then the guard panel after that.



Once the grille and light are out, move onto the splash, you have to remove the aformentioned scrivets plus 2 screws under the bumper (i had one 7mm and one 8mm there).

Okay. Now that you've done that, undo the guard then pull it off. Now you have a nice and easy access to the antenna assembly.

Remove the fastners indicated below. (the very top had a silver screw on peice which i had removed prior to the photo)



Now the antenna assy is free but still has wiring attached to it. No worries. It's time to take it apart.

Start by undoing these, one 8mm and one screw.



Then undo this 7mm. (I did this before the last step as you can see in the pics, not a big deal)



You will find this underneath.



This is where the mast rope spools up in when the antenna is wound in. It just pulls off. Under the spool container there's a white piece that covers the mast rope guide wheel and drive gear from the electric motor. That pulls off also.

This is what you will see.
Next. Remove the screw that is marked below. That holds the antenna housing shaft to the main body.



Now you can pull out your old antenna mast and put your new one in.
Be sure to keep the bit of plastic indicated below.



I bought this Aerpro mast from Repco.



Feed the new mast into the housing then into the main body. Be sure to slip that peice of plastic mentioned before over the new rope.

Next step is to re align the mast housing and screw it back together. Once you have done this, by hand, extend the antenna to its maximum extention. At this stage, if your AU's radio is off, now is the time to turn it on but be sure that the new mast rope is not in the way of the main body's gears. Careful that the motor drive transfer gear doesnt get spat out when you do this!

So, lever the rope guide wheel out, sorta put it on the rope and slide it back onto its spindle. You'll know what i mean when you do it.
Now have it fed through around the large gear.

It should now look like this. (except with less rope showing, i didnt have it at full extention when i took the pic as i should have, also have the drive wheel off in this pic since it popped off earlier.)



Nows a good time to get rid of the old bits of broken mast from the spool container if you haven't already.



Now, replace the small white cover over the drive gear and guide wheel then feed the end of the rope mast into the spool container and fit the container back into its spindle. Fit the washers and put the black cover back on. Fit the 7mm nut up and it should work perfect now!

(If you wish, you can test to see if what you done works by just fitting the white cover over the gears then if you can stretch yourself enough, reach into the car and hit the power button on the radio. When you do so, hold your thumb on the white cover above where the drive transfer gear is! This is when it wants to pop off. Also make sure the rope has somewhere to go and doesnt get caught on anything while its being wound through.)

Right. So now the antenna is back together and working. Now its just a matter of putting everything back where they were.

And dont forget to screw the silver top peice back on.



Putting it all back together should be quicker than taking it all apart!

Hopefully i didn't miss anything and this has been helpfull!

Thanks!

[Uncle_Ken]

Well done, great write up.. Have yesterday off
UK

[david lee]

im a panelbeater and yes thats how its done.a good write up

[Uncle_Ken]

Originally Posted by david lee

im a panelbeater and yes thats how its done.a good write up

Its a bugger of a job, you would think it would be easy but a lot of trial and error in getting it just right.
Admin boys can you please add to the how section?

UK

[BHDOGS]

Good man it's easy once you get there I did it buy removing the wheel and splash guard and pulling it out but this ways good to

[GK]

Great write up. Well done!

GK

[TheInterceptor]

Thanks all!

Yup its quite time consuming. Yup, twas a bit of trial an error haha.

Pull half the car apart to get to one pesky thing ha!

[bartsau]

Very good write up but I would suggest that there may be an easier way. I tend to jack the car up, remove front left wheel and the 3 scrivets holding the back section of the splash guard in place. Then you can pull it out of the way and then you can get an arm in and undo the ariel and pull it out.

Cheers,

Rhys

[dcstraight]

bartsau - Just a question with taking the splash guard off...those scrivets are longer versions of the bonnet underlining clips on mine...how do you go about removing them without butchering them?

For something that should be so simple, it's a major PITA.

Thanks,
Steve

[BHDOGS]

if you do butcher them to get them out you can just buy a set to replace them from a local automotive store i personally just remove all the black plastic guards and throw them away

[mik]

nice job, there is also another method .

[TheInterceptor]

Thanks bartsau! Knew there was a method along those lines. All good!

People can now pick whether they wanna remove the guard or stick their hands into the guard with all the spiders in it
Cheers!


Ah scrivets...to not butcher them, push the screwdriver as little as you can into the head to unscrew. Preferabley unscrew them while pushing from behind where you can. Alternativley, try unscrewing it and levering a flathead under the screw body's head.

Failing that, they want to die, get the flathead into it and/or some pliers

@ mik: hahaha!

[bartsau]

With the scrivets I have found you can sometimes depending on their condition get them out using a screwdriver lightly with the back edge of a blade under the edge pushing it out.

Failing this I use a drill bit about the size of the shaft of the actual screw section maybe a touch larger drill with it on forward to lock the drill in the screw and then reverse it. I have it down to a fine art in that on reverse the screw comes out attached to the back of the drill bit.

Hope this helps. Oh and they are bloody expensive little buggers to purchase!!

[Dezza]

Originally Posted by bartsau

Very good write up but I would suggest that there may be an easier way. I tend to jack the car up, remove front left wheel and the 3 scrivets holding the back section of the splash guard in place. Then you can pull it out of the way and then you can get an arm in and undo the ariel and pull it out.

Cheers,

Rhys

I used this method but without removing the wheel. I jacked it up after turning hard left, and once I'd gotten those bloody scrivets out, I just bent the splash guard around so it was sitting on top of the tyre.

[Bill M]

A timely article for me as my auto antenna has died and I am replacing the cable mast assy, thank you!
To remove the "scrivets" I used a thin paint scraper with a slot the width of the stem cut into it and carefully levered the scrivet out.
Bill.

[david lee]

Originally Posted by Bill M

A timely article for me as my auto antenna has died and I am replacing the cable mast assy, thank you!
To remove the "scrivets" I used a thin paint scraper with a slot the width of the stem cut into it and carefully levered the scrivet out.
Bill.

yes it makes life easy right tool for the right job

[Bill M]

Completed my mast change today, turned the wheel full lock so the tyre was out of the way, removed the mudflap and the push in christmas tree on the top of the inner guard liner and gently twisted the liner out of the way.
Basically followed the photos that TheInterceptor posted. A bit of a fiddle but all good.
Thanks to TheInterceptor and all those who posted constructive comments.
cheers
Bill.

[borry]

thanks buddy, great write up

[autickfordfairmont]

Doing mine at the moment but the arial won't come out - as in I have the whole thing out of the car but the bottom most section (thickest part) of the old antenna won't come out. Its snapped off just above the guard curteousy of a tree branch. Is there anything holding it in or is it just rusted in???? It's the original elec antenna.
Cheers

[Travisty FTT]

Great work! I'm going to add a link to this to my build thread so I don't lose the link. Haha.

[TheInterceptor]

Originally Posted by autickfordfairmont

Doing mine at the moment but the arial won't come out - as in I have the whole thing out of the car but the bottom most section (thickest part) of the old antenna won't come out. Its snapped off just above the guard curteousy of a tree branch. Is there anything holding it in or is it just rusted in???? It's the original elec antenna.
Cheers

Hiya! It sounds like you have to rip the thing out of the housing shaft...literally. There isn't anything as far as i remember holding it in.

There's one screw holding the housing shaft (as pictured in the OP) then it should come apart and you can get the antenna out. You mention rust...now that might be your problem, and WD can probably help if you drench it in it.

There is also one silver fastner on the top of the antenna, check and see if thats getting in the way if its still on.

With those gone, it should come out...so its time to get angry at it, and use force

But be wary, i notice yours is a series one, there shouldn't be a difference but there might be.


And thanks to everyone else!

[GasoLane]

Very informative write up.

Of course if you have a Fairlane it's a totally different story

[TeamSAXON]

Sorry to revive a very old thread but how would this be done on an xr6? Different bumper assembly on the front..

[Uncle_Ken]

Dont take off the front guard, just
1. Take off the wheel
2. Pop off the inerguard plastic, but just near the aerial (dont haveto take it all off.
3. Remove aerial as the write up.
I found on a Series 1 the ground is attached to the aerial at the bottom from the mast but in a Series 3 to the car
UK
And my car is an XR8

[david lee]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Hello all!

After finding little information on changing antenna's nor any write ups and such.... going by what people have said ( remove splash guard, maybe the wheel and getcha hands up in there and such to access it) i thought i'd do a write up since i've just done it! This is for the electric antenna, not sure how it is for the manual one.


Okay. First things first, park your car with the front wheels on full lock left out where theres good light.

image

Now the way i did it involves removing the guard, i wasn't too crash hot on removing the wheel and splash guard so i removed the guard and only the ends of the splash guard. I've never done this before so i apologise if theres an easier way, but i found this was the easiest way for me (Perhaps you could undo the front of the splash guard and maybe get to the bolts at the front of the guard if that suits you better, you can have a looksee anyway!)

To remove the guard you have to remove the headlight..to remove the headlight you have to remove the grille. Removing both of these don't take long at all, infact its probably the fastest part of the job.

Picture below showing the fastners. All but one 13mm are 10mm's. (there are 3 scrivets holding the mudflap to the splash to the guard and another 3 holding the splash to the guard infront of the wheel. There is also one inside the arch behind the wheel on the engine wall if that makes sense. I didnt mark these, you will see them, you will get angry at them, try not to break all of them)

The circle on in the pic indicates where the grille clips into (same on the pass side light)...try not snap the grille where it clips in. Start with the grille then the light then the splash guard. Then the guard panel after that.

image

Once the grille and light are out, move onto the splash, you have to remove the aformentioned scrivets plus 2 screws under the bumper (i had one 7mm and one 8mm there).

Okay. Now that you've done that, undo the guard then pull it off. Now you have a nice and easy access to the antenna assembly.

Remove the fastners indicated below. (the very top had a silver screw on peice which i had removed prior to the photo)

image

Now the antenna assy is free but still has wiring attached to it. No worries. It's time to take it apart.

Start by undoing these, one 8mm and one screw.

image

Then undo this 7mm. (I did this before the last step as you can see in the pics, not a big deal)

image

You will find this underneath.

image

This is where the mast rope spools up in when the antenna is wound in. It just pulls off. Under the spool container there's a white piece that covers the mast rope guide wheel and drive gear from the electric motor. That pulls off also.

This is what you will see.
Next. Remove the screw that is marked below. That holds the antenna housing shaft to the main body.

image

Now you can pull out your old antenna mast and put your new one in.
Be sure to keep the bit of plastic indicated below.

image

I bought this Aerpro mast from Repco.

image

Feed the new mast into the housing then into the main body. Be sure to slip that peice of plastic mentioned before over the new rope.

Next step is to re align the mast housing and screw it back together. Once you have done this, by hand, extend the antenna to its maximum extention. At this stage, if your AU's radio is off, now is the time to turn it on but be sure that the new mast rope is not in the way of the main body's gears. Careful that the motor drive transfer gear doesnt get spat out when you do this!

So, lever the rope guide wheel out, sorta put it on the rope and slide it back onto its spindle. You'll know what i mean when you do it.
Now have it fed through around the large gear.

It should now look like this. (except with less rope showing, i didnt have it at full extention when i took the pic as i should have, also have the drive wheel off in this pic since it popped off earlier.)

image

Nows a good time to get rid of the old bits of broken mast from the spool container if you haven't already.

image

Now, replace the small white cover over the drive gear and guide wheel then feed the end of the rope mast into the spool container and fit the container back into its spindle. Fit the washers and put the black cover back on. Fit the 7mm nut up and it should work perfect now!

(If you wish, you can test to see if what you done works by just fitting the white cover over the gears then if you can stretch yourself enough, reach into the car and hit the power button on the radio. When you do so, hold your thumb on the white cover above where the drive transfer gear is! This is when it wants to pop off. Also make sure the rope has somewhere to go and doesnt get caught on anything while its being wound through.)

Right. So now the antenna is back together and working. Now its just a matter of putting everything back where they were.

And dont forget to screw the silver top peice back on.

image

Putting it all back together should be quicker than taking it all apart!

Hopefully i didn't miss anything and this has been helpfull!

Thanks!

does that top nut have to be taken off before arial can be removed ?