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Topic: Power Antenna troubles

in Forum: C3 Electrical


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Power Antenna troubles (1/3)
 10/13/12 9:45am
reb1025
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Joined: 10/13/2012
Posts: 1

Hi - I'm new to this forum and hope someone out there can help me.  I'm a fairly new Corvette owner and depend on my local mechanic to fix any problems.  When I bought the car, the antenna was stuck in the up position.  The mechanic replaced the relay switch.  Now the antenna goes up, but the motor continues to run and it won't go back down.  He now says I need to replace the entire antenna because it probably has a bad limit switch??  Being that I don't know that much about it, I'm looking for the experts out there to comment.   If I do need to replace the entire thing - any suggestions on the best place to look? 
Thanks for your help and support! 
 
 
 
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Re: Power Antenna troubles (2/3)
 10/13/12 6:28pm
Adams' AppleLifetime Member
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Duncanville, TX - USA

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#1-1974 L-48 4spd Cp Med Red Metallic/Black deluxe int w/AC/tilt/tele./p/w-p/b/ Am-Fm/map light National/Regional/Chapter NCRS "Top Flight" #2-1985 Bright Red/Carmine Cp.L-98/auto Member: NCRS, NCRS Texas, Corvette Legends of Texas


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Does it go down on it's own, or do you have to push it down?
If it goes down on it's own, that means the drive cable is ok. If it will not go down on it's own, then the cable is probably broken. That can be fixed by replacing the mast of the antenna, but it requires disassembling the ant. motor.
If the ant will go up/down ok, but only continues to run in the Up position, then your tech is correct about the limit switch. That might be repairable, but it might not. You would need to disassemble the ant motor to figure that out.
In the long run, it might be easiest to simply replace the whole thing. Just depends on how much $$$ you wanna spend.


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Re: Power Antenna troubles (3/3)
 10/14/12 12:18pm
eboLifetime Member
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Holland Patent, NY - USA

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#1 *1980 White, Red interior 14,000 mile #2 *1980 Red, Oyster interior 93,000 miles Resto project car, rebuilt to 383 stroker


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Welcome Reb, I had same problem with mine, went up and just ran. It was the plastic cable that broke. It's an easy fix.
Loosen top antenna nut on body, get up into wheel well and unbolt motor unit. You will see that the casing is rivoted together. Carefully!!!! Slowly!!! drill out those rivots. You will see if the cable is broken. If it is order the replacement mast as Joel described in above post.
Replace cable and mast, bolt housing together where rivots were and put back on car. nice easy, clean job.
Good luck and remember to drill out those rivots slowly.....from experience you can break the plastic....Cry
 
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