'97 Taurus GL Wagon 3.0L 204.5k: Power Antenna Stuck Up!
#1
08-20-2012, 01:50 PM
'97 Taurus GL Wagon 3.0L 204.5k: Power Antenna Stuck Up!
'97 Taurus GL Wagon 3.0L 204.5k: Power Antenna Stuck Up!
Original power antenna. I can hear the motor running but the antenna isn't moving at all. Sounds like a broken gear. Anyone ever repair one of these or do I have to buy a whole new unit?
Original power antenna. I can hear the motor running but the antenna isn't moving at all. Sounds like a broken gear. Anyone ever repair one of these or do I have to buy a whole new unit?
#2
08-21-2012, 02:32 AM
There is a big nylon gear inside that winds the "rope" to extend and retract the antenna.
If applying some downward pressure to the antenna while trying to get it to go down doesn't help you may have to replace the unit. If it is broken. open it up and see what has happened. You may have to replace it anyway.
If applying some downward pressure to the antenna while trying to get it to go down doesn't help you may have to replace the unit. If it is broken. open it up and see what has happened. You may have to replace it anyway.
#4
08-27-2012, 01:33 PM
I decided to simply disconnect the motor - but it's not really that simple to do. The plug is on the fender-side in a very tight spot, so you have to remove the unit. Not that big a deal: the silver bolt at the top (through that curved piece of sheetmetal that you can see through the square hole), and a gold nut at the bottom (NOT the black-colored nut to the left). Of course, you also have to remove that weird 4-slot bezel-nut on the fender that the antenna comes up through, and this requires a special tool. I simply used a screwdriver with a wad of paper towels at the tip to -push- the nut slowly around. Problem with this method is you are at constant risk of the screwdriver slipping off and either gouging the black plastic trim 'collar' or even worse - scratching the paint on the fender! It's slow going, but just keep the screwdriver almost straight up an down. Anyway, once these three fasteners are removed, the motor slips out the bottom. Once the unit is out, the fun begins. You open it up by removing the 6 (?) screws. Immediately inside will be a clear plastic/hollowed-out wheel (that the nylon-toothed "mast-mover" snake coils into). Underneath this is a plastic plate that separates the wheel from the plastic gears underneath. It turned out my internal plastic gears were OK and all that was broken was about 10" off the mast-mover - it was lying inside the wheel, detached). The mast mover snakes up inside the antenna on one end and then inside the motor cabinet pinches between a tiny 3/8" plastic pulley (that likes to pop off during re-assembly) to engage a 2" plastic gear for about an inch of its teeth before rising upward through a slot in the plastic plate (where it then coils around the hollow center of the clear plastic wheel that sits atop it). Since the gears on the internal pulleys appeared to be OK, I COULD'VE replaced the mast-mover (for about $30) and had the whole thing working again, but I chose to simply leave it the way it was and just unplug the power to the motor and leave the antenna up at all times.
Putting it back together can be a little tricky. Make sure the aluminum post coming out of the unit is COMPLETELY SEATED into the unit BEFORE you tighten all the screws on the plastic cabinet body! Mine wasn't and it made the unit just a little bit too long and VERY DIFFICULT to reinstall (but I kept trying because it was SO close)! Also, if you're not going to replace the mast-mover, I would try to engage what's left of it with the 2" gear and then fit the plastic plate and clear wheel over the top (to keep it in place) while you push the antenna all the way back down (it has to be all the way back down to reinstall). You should hear the churning of the gears as you do this. After reinstall, you can gently pull the antenna back up high enough to get acceptable reception, but not too high that the mast mover disengages the 2" gear inside the unit (I THINK this method would be more likely to keep the antenna in the position you set it to and keep it from falling down while driving - which would affect your reception). I found that my antenna needed to be at least 75% up to get all the stations I was used to listening to.
One other thing - forget about yanking those two 1" plugs that you see immediately after pulling out the spare tire. Pulling either one will kill your radio completely. Also - removing the two wires with the eyelets bolted to the metal does nothing (to the radio, at least). These are grounds for something else, apparently. The wire that drives the motor on the antenna actually splices off the thick main harness at the right-most edge of the plastic panel opening and quickly disappears into the fender. It's hard to follow because there are so few openings of any decent size to peer through to see where it goes. It heads to the fender-side of the motor where a smallish telephone-jack-sized plug makes the connection. But you cannot release this plug by just reaching around with one hand (unless you're Harry Houdini). Too tight and you could only do this with one hand (finger nail of index finger pushing on the release clip, then middle finger trying to pull plug out ... I couldn't do it!).
Putting it back together can be a little tricky. Make sure the aluminum post coming out of the unit is COMPLETELY SEATED into the unit BEFORE you tighten all the screws on the plastic cabinet body! Mine wasn't and it made the unit just a little bit too long and VERY DIFFICULT to reinstall (but I kept trying because it was SO close)! Also, if you're not going to replace the mast-mover, I would try to engage what's left of it with the 2" gear and then fit the plastic plate and clear wheel over the top (to keep it in place) while you push the antenna all the way back down (it has to be all the way back down to reinstall). You should hear the churning of the gears as you do this. After reinstall, you can gently pull the antenna back up high enough to get acceptable reception, but not too high that the mast mover disengages the 2" gear inside the unit (I THINK this method would be more likely to keep the antenna in the position you set it to and keep it from falling down while driving - which would affect your reception). I found that my antenna needed to be at least 75% up to get all the stations I was used to listening to.
One other thing - forget about yanking those two 1" plugs that you see immediately after pulling out the spare tire. Pulling either one will kill your radio completely. Also - removing the two wires with the eyelets bolted to the metal does nothing (to the radio, at least). These are grounds for something else, apparently. The wire that drives the motor on the antenna actually splices off the thick main harness at the right-most edge of the plastic panel opening and quickly disappears into the fender. It's hard to follow because there are so few openings of any decent size to peer through to see where it goes. It heads to the fender-side of the motor where a smallish telephone-jack-sized plug makes the connection. But you cannot release this plug by just reaching around with one hand (unless you're Harry Houdini). Too tight and you could only do this with one hand (finger nail of index finger pushing on the release clip, then middle finger trying to pull plug out ... I couldn't do it!).
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