Antennae is bent

[AZVET]

Some idiot swung the hose around while in the coin op car wash with the radio on.  Bent the antennae (sp?) and now it will not retract all the way.

Do I have to get in there and unbolt the entire unit in order to get it working again?

What trick have you performed to fix this problem?  Or are you not an idiot like me?

[Barney Eaton]

I take the antenna completely apart..........if it is not bent too badly it can be straightned.   I did it by hand for a long time and then built a fixture....I can rotate the mast and find the high side and bend it .....try to get it back to within .010 out of round.

the other option is to get a unbent one from the salvage yard from another GM car and put it into your antenna.    First measure the diameter of the largest section of movable chrome mast....yours should be .300 in 1991 they reduced the size to .250 dia.

you cannot put a .250 in a .300 assembly and the old .300 mast are getting harder to find.

You might luck out and have a replacement ....if the date code on the mast is 1991 or later it may have a .250 mast which is easier to find.

[SpecialEducation]

Common GM part. I get them from the local self service yard fir about $15. 

[handmedownreatta]

i disconnected my antenna and used the wire to power my bluetooth adapter.i just can't listen to the constant commercials on fm anymore.

[Barney Eaton]

There are differences  but all 1980 - 200? are very similar antenna.   The Reatta antenna is threaded at the top like those in the attached photo.

Note the end positioned by the top one...it has no threads and Cadillac used that end.    Above I mentioned the difference in the size of the chrome mast.

I failed to note the change in fittings for the coax....the top antenna is a 1991 and newer and the coax plugs into the silver fitting near the top....

1990 and earlier use the coax on the lower antenna,  it is about 16" long and plugs into the coax coming from the radio.

Bottom line is you can use parts but just picking up a Delco antenna from another GM cars may not be plug n play on your car.

[AZVET]

My last project in my 2 1/2 years of ownership will be to fix the antenna.  I found a good YouTube video on how to take one apart.

I will document the process with some photos.  Hope to start on it tomorrow.

I would tackle the broken tape player but have no desire to listen to cassettes.

Fun in the garage!?

[Blue90]

48 minutes ago, AZVET said:

I would tackle the broken tape player but have no desire to listen to cassettes.

Fun in the garage!?

Hey, I've had my blue coupe for 15 years, second owner.  I listen to tapes all the time.  They're cheap; they're still out there; and the music is groovy!?

[AZVET]

Need some help here.  What secures the far end (top end) of the wire to the mast?  Is it just a jam fit?

See pic:

Headed to a car show so I must quit for now.

 

[Barney Eaton]

Here are two examples..........the plastic cord goes into a ferrel that is part of the bottom contact.   The original parts are staked (see second picture)

The problem with trying to stake in a replacement, is deforming the tube/ferrel .....if deformed it will not slide smoothly into the mating tube.

I heat the staked part and that softens or melts the plastic and the old part can be pulled out........if you use weed eater line as a replacement, you can insert the weed eater line into the hole while it is still hot

and it melts...hold it until it hardens and it usually bonds in place.

If you use plastic coated steel as the replacement, you need to clean out the hole,  then silver solder the steel cable into the hole.

If you use weed whacker plastic.......it must be round, not one of the fancy shapes.  You also need .105 or .130........smaller sizes will not work.

The original plastic is usually .120 which happens to be about 3mm but they don't sell 3mm in the US.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Barney Eaton (see edit history)

[AZVET]

Very interesting and informative.  Thank you!  I really love this forum?

I have the shaft straight now and it slides up and down smoothly.  I will head to Wally World and get some trimmer string and give this a try tomorrow.

The car show I went to had some great cars.  There was a 65 GTO Convertible from Colorado that was painted Porsche Orange.  It had a modern LS engine from a late model GTO along with the complete interior from the donor car.  Beautiful?

[Barney Eaton]

Note I added the weed whacker line size to the previous note.

[AZVET]

I went to Walmart after worship service and football.  They had cleared out their yard supplies and replaced everything with Christmas stuff.  No weed whacker line.  I then went to True Value and they only had the X shaped stuff in $17 packs in the correct size.  I did find a small pack of .085 for about $6.

I melted the old wire out of the metal holder for both ends then heated them red hot and inserted the plastic string.  This seemed to be the correct fit for my 88.  I also super glued the tip end as the string did not go in very far.  I let it dry and then had problems getting the small section to slide up out of the middle section.  I then took my Dremel and sanded down the plastic lumps and super glue.  Fit fine after that.

There is a very good video that shows a Buick Grand National getting a new mast and cord.  A You Tube search will bring it up.

I did learn something today!  Do not use gasket maker to seal up the halves of the antenna case.  What a freakin, nasty, sticky mess.  I should have bought the proper silicone caulk.  I had a tube of the black gasket maker left over from my recent intake manifold install so I figured I might as well use it.  Bad idea as it got all over everything.  After installing a couple of the metal clips I realized that I had the tube installed the wrong way.  I had to pull it apart, flip it over and finally got it together after dinner.  This made another sticky mess.  I really hope this thing works.  If it does not then its off to the Pick and Pull tomorrow.

I am in for the evening so I will finish bolting the antenna in tomorrow morning and let you know the results.  Did you know brake clean removes gasket cement??

[AZVET]

The best thing about this job is that the assembly is very convenient to get to.  Here is the label on the one in the car.  Looks like a replacement to me.

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by AZVET (see edit history)

[Barney Eaton]

Sounds like your first antenna repair went well...............at either end, it is not necessary to heat the part "red" hot to install the plastic line..........it does help when getting the old plastic out of the "J" hook end.

If you get the line crooked coming out of the top end.......it will drag on the mating part .     If you are lucky,  the .085 you used will not kink........that is the most common problem with the weed whacker line.

When the antenna is going UP....the line needs to be contained or it can kink (fold over itself)   The old white stuff would just break,  the weed whacker line is so tough it kinks .....that is why you need to use

the larger size.

On cars that have the antenna in the trunk,  it is not necessary to seal the two haves of the motor housing.

The date code tag on the antenna is a clue that the antenna was replaced.........it would be difficult to get a 1997 date code unit in a 1990 Reatta from the factory.

This was in an antenna I did this week.......it had original plastic cord.........I have no idea how it got twisted like that.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Barney Eaton (see edit history)

[Ronnie]

Thanks for all the tips Barney. You have encouraged me to tackle this repair sometime if I need to.

[AZVET]

Watching baseball all day today.  I did notice that the replacement antenna on my car had a extremely minimal amount of weather sealing.