Power antenna question

[matthew]

Hi everyone, I bought a new car to replace the loveboat. 88 grand marq ls, leather dual power seats, auto climate, a little rust though and I paid too much but what the hell.

Anyway, the antenna is missing, it is power, I think I heard the electric motor though when I hit the switch, if i remember rightly. Anyway, what is involved in replacing it, it is in the right front fender, I have no idea what to do to replace it. Any info, ideas, suggestions, or experiences appreciated.

I'm getting ready to pull the motor and trans out of the loveboat but I don't now what I'm going to do with it yet. I already threw the complete rear in the wagon, and it is loving the 3.27 trac lok.

Thanks.

[86GmLsCoupe]

It sounds its just missing the mast. You can get inexpensive replacement masts on ebay that are as good as the original. I did this on my friends Mark VII. With the replacement, you pull out the old damaged, bent, or stripped mast and feed in the new one. If its stuck in there you will have to take the motor out to remove the whats left of the old antenna. If its missing altogether, just feed the new one in. With my car however, the motor was shot and i had to replace it. Its not to bad getting the motor out, just take out some of the fenderwell bolts (not all) towards the firewall and use something (block of wood, ect) to help push it open so you can reach in. There is 1, maybe 2 bolts holding the motor to the fender and the chrome ring on the fender which unscrews. Only part I hated was running the new cable to the receiver, took me like two hours to fish it through the dash because of the air ducts.

[interceptor1985]

You have to take the fender off in order to get to it. Just take your time and use some baggies to put the bolts in and LABEL THEM...lol..long story.......... I just got one from the junk yard but around here there is lots of good parts to find there.

[gadget73]

The antenna cable doesn't unplug from the bottom of the motor? The ones on a Towncar do. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to change the antenna, just pull the cable out of the motor/antenna assembly and install the new one.

[86GmLsCoupe]

Mine didn't unplug and it was a Ford factory replacement. I don't see why you should have to remove the fender though, there's plenty of room to reach in and feel for the one nut that holds the motor in and wiggle the motor out.

[interceptor1985]

huh? Perhaps I just didn't look hard enough since I needed to replace the fender anyway.

[p71towny]

I chucked the power ant from the vic. It pissed me off and I hurled it into the trash. Love my standard mast now.

[marquisman]

jus unbolt a couple bolts from the inner fender well, andbend it back and the motor is right in front of you.

[gadget73]

Well sure enough they don't unplug. I pulled the one from Fordgirl's Vic and had to snake the cable out from under the dash. Annoyingly, the motor and mast on that are fine, the cable itself is fried. The ground connection wasn't good, and I think what happened was it tried to ground through the antenna cable and fried. Zero conductivity between the antenna lead and the actual antenna mast.

p71towny: does a standard mast fit right into position where the power one goes ? Just asking in case we cant find a good motorized one to replace the one in the car. Actually even if I could find a bad one with a good cable I could piece a workable antenna together.

[p71towny]

Yup, it bolts right in place. The only problem I had was finding an antenna that would screw into my power antenna wire. Other than that, plug and play.

[86GmLsCoupe]

Could you perhaps splice in new wire? To me it looks like plain old coaxial cable, but I could easily be wrong. I was thinking if the ends weren't to fried you could run a new feed from the working motor and pop on the original end that goes into the receiver. I would try to splice maybe an inch or two away from the motor. Do you think that might work?

[gadget73]

Its plain coax, but it seems to be bad right at the antenna itself, where I can't fix the stupid thing. Its either fried from a bad ground, or it just corroded inside where the center conductor attaches to the part that makes contact with the antenna mast. Either way its right inside the antenna itself where I cant get it apart.

[matthew]

Thnaks, I went into the project and had no trouble removing the old power antenna without pulling the fender. Due to parts availability issues, I just went with a standard solid mast and removed the motor. If anyone needs the motor it is good so let me know and I'll get it to you cheap or free. Nice to have radio again.

[gadget73]

Thats what I did too actually. I installed another power antenna, and it was bad too. Stole the standard whip antenna from the 88 GM thats sitting here, and it works fine. Much easier to install than the stupid power antenna anyway.