hmgcreative

Hello from Austin,

I need your help. I have a 96 C4 Grand Sport and my little boy (2 years old) decided to lower the garage on top of the car breaking my antenna off at the base. I have bought a new antenna mast and when reading the instructions it say to remove the mast nut from the top of the car. The only problem here is that the base of the antenna is bent and is preventing the mast nut from coming off. I've tried to bend the antenna back to a cilinder shape so that the nut can be removed but no such luck.



Any suggestions? At this point is my only option to remove the entire antenna motor (through the RL passeger side fender well? Is so, will I run into any issues removing the mast head nut once I've removed the antenna motor?

Thanks so much for any feedback or suggestions you can offer.

RLG

remove the rubber boot, you might be able to get some needle nose vise grips on the old antenna.

pkazsr

You will have to remove the motor. Yep through the wheel-well. Also all the connections are accessed from the cargo bay. Not a quick job.

hmgcreative

Will I be able to pull the antenna motor down without first removing the mast nut? I'm assuming the broken off antenna and mast nut will easily pull out from the fender well along with the motor?

hmgcreative

I don't think I will be able to remove the rubber boot without tearing it, any suggestions on the best way to remove it without ruining it?

whitenow

I really think if you can just break the mast off at the nut, it should be able to unscrew, but my experience is that the mast base is a bugger to get pulled out after the nut is undone. A whole lot easier when the assembly is out.

I did mine laying on the ground, not removing any outside body parts(the rear hatch center trim needs removed and left side trim and left center foam need lifted to access wires), looking up and having a decent light to see above. Be ready for all sorts of dirt you never knew was there to fall in your face. I have about a 6' arm span and had to reach to get the grommet into the cargo well hole.

It works well to have someone on the other side, use a string or such to guide the wires through on installation. (When removing the wires, tie a line that is used to pull them back into the cargo area.)

You should not have an issue with the rubber boot if you can crimp the old mast into the center area of the nut. Lube it up with dielectric grease, too.

Also, if you'd like, I could send you a remasted assembly. Then you could just swap.

BlackHarleyMan

Shoot me an email at blkharleyman@yahoo.com, I'll talk you through how to get that mast out without having to pull the entire assembly out. It's not as bad as you think.

R/Noland

P.S. What number is your GS?

hmgcreative

Hi Noland, I just sent you an email. Thanks in advance!

hmgcreative

Hi Whitesnow, thanks for the feedback and pointers. A dumb question but what does a remasted assembly include? I've already purchased a new antenna mast so I'm thinking if I can get the mast nut removed reassembling should be easy, or so it appears.

hmgcreative

Hi Noland,

I just sent you an email (it's coming from james[at]hmgcreative.com, thanks so much for reaching out.

RLG

even if you do a new one is cheap

whitenow

I had some trouble removing the mast-even though the mast itself was good (broken ribbon), it stuck inside the housing when I tried to pull it out.

These housings do not appear to be remast-ready. The housing needs to be glued back together. I have remasted, cleaned, lubed, epoxyed and tested this unit. You would just pull yours, stick this in place, send me your old stuff and be done. From your picture, the rubber boot should not be an issue in pulling the assembly.

I keep trying to forget that you should not have to take the housing off, since the ribbon is all out. But still, IMHO it would be simpler to swap and be done, rather than deal with frustration of the remast itself.

But, if you want to do it yourself, I'd be glad to talk you through. Send me a pm to swap phone numbers and find a time to chat.

BTW-the mast grommet should not need removed to pull the antenna assembly out the bottom.

I have not tried remasting with unit in place. I had broken ribbon to remove, which required assembly removal.

Your replacement mast came with the special socket, right? Does it fit in the hole, catch the nut and clear the rubber grommet?

whitenow

The nut is part of the assembly. No need to remove the nut before assembly removal.

If you are going to try to remast w/o pulling assembly, I have no experience, but my mast base sure took some effort to get out.