zeeker

Does anyone have a picture of the gearbox assembly or can tell me by my pictures what I'm missing? I don't quite understand what keeps the clutch pressed against the *****? especially if it gets a bind and the clutch dis-engages. What pushes it back in? ...........Springs...Wave washer??? I gotta be missing something!!! The motor runs great and the mast and cable are pristine. Help please........Thanks..zeeker

gthompson49

Four spring go into the pockets of the plastic gear. The metal and plastic gear are squeezed together and secured with a E-ring. Your metal gear bushing doesn't look right. Greg

65hihp

save yourself lots of grief and aggravation and send that puppy off to Greg in Overland Park. He will make it work like new and coat it like the factory did. All for reasonable cost. No one on earth does a better 65/66 power antenna.

zeeker

To Gthompson, thank you so much for your response. Believe me, I'm not trying to take anything away from your business. I have been to your website and I truly believe your workmanship is second to none! If my repair takes a crap, I will send it to you for a core. I probably picked up that gear fifty times and did not notice those rusty springs in those holes. I guess I just thought it was dirt. (Finding those was the toughest part of this repair).First let me explain..........What I'm doing with this corvette is NOT a restore. If it was, this antenna would already be in your shop. I'm just trying to fix stuff that don't work!!! I worked 43 years repairing CNC machines for an aerospace company. I worked with guys who didn't (or couldn't) REPAIR anything. They were parts replacers. I, on the other hand, always wanted to see why the three hundred dollar valve leaked, so I took it apart and most of the time it was a five cent "O" ring. Why don't you just fix the damn thing??? Anyway, I just needed to see if I could fix it. The self centering motor bearing was all wallered out so I reamed out the hole and pressed in a sleeve bushing. (I googled forever but nada). Then I reamed out the clutch bushing and pressed in a flange bushing.(not serrated. You must own them all) I drilled the flange into the nylon and installed four spring pins. (Used high strength locktite also) I shined up the mast, put it all back together, hooked it up to my battery charger and..... OH MY.....It goes IN and OUT....YES I have not installed it in the car yet but I have two questions. What shuts it off at the end of the stroke? And, how much grease do you put in it?
I only greased the pinion and plastic gear. Heck, I don't know!!!
I guess the next item is to plug it in and see if the radio works...zeeker

magicv8

Nothing shuts the motor off at the end of the stroke. The assembly is protected by a design that uses spring loaded ball bearing ***** in the plastic drive (upper right in your pic) against rivets on the adjacent round metal piece (lower right in your pic). When the antenna reaches either limit, the ***** retract into the plastic, and you hear thumping as the motor cycles the drive to repeat the retracting until you let go of the power switch.


Your springs are probably rust-frozen in the plastic drive holes under the metal *****. Before reassembly, grind small ramps into the heads of the rivets to reduce the strain on the old drive cable during overrun. Get new springs at a hardware store and new ***** at a bearing supply store.

gthompson49

Yep, the spring loaded ***** act as a clutch with the rivets on the metal gear. If your antenna doesn't ratchet at the top and bottom of its stroke you can easily destroy the plastic gear with the torque from the worm gear. I put a little waterproof grease on all the moving parts. Make sure the bearing ***** compress properly in the plastic gear cups. Check your drive cable for corrosion and treat it to stop further corrosion. Nice job.

zeeker

Gentlemen, thank you so much for your input. It goes up and down nicely and ratchets like it is supposed to at the ends of its travel. The switch inside the car even works
woo-hoo! Now the radio..........That's a different story!!! With the volume turned all the way up I get a pile of FM stations (faintly) I am going to replace the speaker and if it's still a no-go, I will have to seek professional help. Thanks again........zeeker
By the way, the ***** and drive cable looked like new but the RUSTY clutch sure didn't.