Yesterday, I realized that my power antenna did not lower like it is supposed to. Yet I can still hear the motor trying to raise and lower the antenna. Has anyone else had a problem like this or know of a good way to diagnose the problem?

 

You need a new antenna mast. The motor turns and grabs a long plastic cord with teeth notched into it that raises and lowers the antenna. Usually this plastic cord is what breaks. You can pull out the old one and feed the new one in by turning the radio on/off, but it's kinda tricky if you don't know what you're doing. You can always just get a non-retractible replacement from autozone or somewhere.

 

i wud take it apart and mess around with it. bieng the antenna, its not like you cant drive if u mess it up.

 

Should I just disconnect the motor for now? I'll take a look at the antenna and that plastic cord later, I just want to make sure that I am not causing damage to it by it running, yet the antenna not moving!

 

Can you replace it with any kind of high gain antenna?

Most newer cars do not have a large metal rod sticking out of them...

How do the radio's reception work?

 

I unplugged my antenna a while ago. It kept freezing and not functioning properly when it was really cold outside. And it was basically a brand new mast. So even new masts when they are cold/frozen won't work sometimes. In warm weather it works perfectly, but I think it looks queer when erect.

 

The radio reception isn't that great with the antenna anyway. You only loose some reception without the antenna.

 

i fixed a similar problem with a bottle of seafoam deep creep but give WD 40 a try it might just be really dirty or somthin

 

agreed... mine was acting really wierd for a while only going halfway down or not at all so i figured i needed a new mast and would replace it once it warmed up but the last few weeks it has been working fine