Antenna Replacement

[rickdabrewer]

Well it seems my antenna on my 98 outback wants to remain stuck up, no pun intended. This would be fine if not for my wife's frequent visits to the car wash. The motor makes a grinding noise so it sounds like the mast nis stripped. What's the easiest way to replace the mast and do I need any special tools to do this. Cheers

[gbhrps]

Its been years since I did a mast job on the 97 OBW, and I've owned 2 newer OBW's since then , ... so My memory may be a little foggy. As I recall no special tools are needed, and once out of the car you can replace just the mast assembly for not a lot of bucks. Strip the floor panels in the rear, and remove the rear side (driver's side) panel. You'll now have ready access to the antenna unit. Its held in by two 10 mm bolts. Pull the drain tube from the bottom of the unit (Its other end goes through the side of the car to exit between the rear bumper cover and the metal body.) and leave the rest of the tube there. Pull out the antenna cable from connector, and disconnect the electrical connector from the timer control box (both are attached to the antenna assembly and easy to get at.) And now you'll have a decision to make. Unless the antenna is in a fully retracted position, you won't be able to remove the unit from the car. You can either try forcing it down by hand, or you'll have to cut it off using side cutters or a hack saw, and cut it on the outside of the car just above the chrome lock ring where the antenna exits the body of the car. Once done you'll need to unwind the chrome lock ring using snapring pliers, or I would improvise using two small nails the will fit down into the two holes on the lock ring, and held in a pair of visegrips. Be careful not to scratch the paint. Now the unit will come out of the car. One screw near the top of the antenna assembly can be removed and you'll be able to pull the entire mast assembly out of the top. At the bottom of the unit where the plastic mast whip winds up into a coil, you'll see a nut dead centre. When removed you'll be able to pull the circular cover off and fish out the remaining pieces of plastic mast whip. Now take the largest section of mast and a piece of the plastic whip to your local parts suppliers or Japanese car dealerships and match it up with one that is the same diameter and whip shape. ( I presently have a mast and whip assembly from an early 90's Toyota in my 90 Nissan 300zx, simply because Japanese car makers all use the same parts suppliers, and the closest Nissan dealership was 100 miles away.) When you get a new mast assembly you can simply push the plastic whip back into the assembly, being sure to get the geared side of the whip in the correct direction to match the interal gears, if you can force it by hand, or lay the unit inside the tailgate, hookup the electrical connection to the timer box, turn your radio on, position the mast whip into the top of the antenna correctly, and get someone to turn off the radio as you allow the whip and mast to be retracted back into the antenna assembly. Replace the screw that secures the mast into the tube, cycle the radio on and off several times to make sure everything works correctly, and then reverse the procedure to secure the assembly back into the car. Good Luck!