50's antenna assembly

pulled an antenna from a parts car and as I was cleaning it up a bit, when I pulled up on the mast it pulled completely out of the bottom part of the assembly. Question here is, is this in any way typical (not so on any of my others) and will the antenna work as should if the mast is simply pushed back into the base.

Mr Earl,

My 58 does the same thing although I'm not sure it is supposed to but.... when I push it back in the base which is still on the car it indeed works like it is supposed to for the radio. I guess you would just need to make sure the base stays clean in order to make contact.

Heck I've even seen guys shove a coat hanger in the broken off mast and still received the local stations.

Thanks Doug, I pulled this for someone else and needed to know how to represent it. It is in otherwise very nice driver condition and I was really proud of it until I pulled up on it and the mast came completely out of the base, a real "Oh ****" moment. This is the last of my antennae from parts cars. I checked three others on three other cars and they all had either vertical cracks in the bottom mast piece or horizontal weak points in the 2nd story mast piece where it took almost no force to snap the rest of the way off. Correct ones with the correct tips will be getting scarce the longer they sit in the elements in junkyards.

If the "other guy" doesn't want it, put it on my list, I wrecked mine on disassembly...

I've got another but it ain't too pretty, would need plating. I'll send you pics if I can find your email address.

Pm sent