Wuttin

Working on an install of an original Delco power antenna in my 79 (Thanks KapsSA!). The wiring harness from the radio to the relay has a gray-ish module of some sort, presumably a timer that waits for a few seconds after you shut off the car and then lowers the antenna. There is an extra power wire that is labeled "ignition".

Anyone have any experience with these? It is not shown in the AIM and I am planning on chopping it from the harness unless there is some neat unique feature/function that it performs.

Thoughts?

Thanks, steve

Young69Owner

My power antenna goes down right after I turn the car off (if I am listening to the radio). I would guess that it is a capacitor that gives the antenna power long enough to go down.

...Roger...

I have a bunch of those gray boxes laying around somewhere. Those were universal antenna kits with everything including new harness and coax. I just installed the antenna and wired it at the back fender.

Red_Shift

Is your power wire that is labeled "ignition" your switched power wire such that the radio is only on when the ignition switch is in the run position? Everyone get that?

Wuttin

Good question...you think it's maybe an override that controls radio power via ignition? That might actually be useful since my radio is wired directly to the battery which bypasses the quick disconnect...I have accidentally left it on once or twice. Makes more sense though that it is a delay timer of sorts...

Wish I had a pic...

Stock = orange to constant hot, yellow to radio antenna trigger, black to ground

With module = orange to constant hot, yellow to radio antenna trigger, red to ignition, black to ground.

gbvette62

I have to admit, that I've wondered what the purpose of those "timers" were. A factory installed power antenna didn't use one, but all of the Delco replacement power antennas came with those timers. It looks identical to the orange interior courtesy light delay timer, except they are gray and the part number is different (2202009 on the gray ones, 463498 on the orange ones). I've never been able to find the 2202009 part number in any of my GM parts books, so I don't know what they referred to it as.

Did the car originally have a factory installed power antenna? With a factory power antenna, you had 3 wires coming off the antenna; green, gray & white. These 3 wires ran to the power antenna relay. If you had an OEM power antenna before, than you should be able to install the new antenna by just attaching the green, gray and white wires to the new antenna and reuse your old relay and wiring.

If the car never had a power antenna in it, I'm not so sure I would be to quick to eliminate the timer. With an OEM antenna, you had 3 wires coming from the relay. There was a black ground, yellow from the radio (hot with ignition or accessory on) and orange that ran to the courtesy light & clock 20 amp fuse (orange was hot always). With the Delco replacement antennas, there is an additional wire coming from the timer, red which goes to the ignition (and orange has an inline fuse added and is labeled for attachment to the battery). Because it has the additional red wire coming out of it for attaching to the ignition, I can't say that it is needed or not.

If your retrofitting a car without a power antenna, I can't see what harm it would do to leave it, obviously GM thought it was needed.

...Roger...

Wuttin do you have the instructions with the antenna kit , if not I'm sure I do in one of the boxes. I can look and see what they call the gray box and maybe from a diagram figure out what its for.

KapsSA

If your radio is directly wired to the battery terminal maybe that delay module overrides it and lowers the antenna even if the radio is still on.
With the radio hooked to the batt terminal the antenna won't go down when you turn off the key as it would still be triggered if the radio is left on.

And even tho that module looks like the orange courtesy light timer it's different. There's less 'stuff' inside of it.

Wire it WITH the delay and see what it does before buttoning everything back up. You can always clip the wires and pull it out.
It's just the two wires that then get connected together and the additional ground.