efird72

My power antenna doesn't work. Where should i begin my search for possible reasons? thanks matthew

Tally Ho

What year is your Vette? Could be the relay or the antenna itself.

efird72

It's a 1981 and made in st Louis

Tally Ho

There's a relay behind the passenger seat under the cargo door. Take the cargo tray out and you will see it bolted to the bulkhead. I have some troubleshooting instructions at home I'll PM to you this evening. I'm at work now and don't have access to them. The instructions were very helpful in isolating my antenna problem. I ended up changing the antenna and the relay.

jeff79'

Can you hear a noise near the antenna, when you turn the radio on ? That would be the antenna motor humming. If so, it's pretty easy to fix yourself. The problem in that case, is that the filament inside the motor assembly is broken, but you can get a replacement filament line rather inexpensively, and fix it yourself. Use the search function here for "Power Antenna" There's tons of help, including my 2 below, for when I fixed mine.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...fine-then.html
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...s.html:cheers:

Here's a picture of the filament...



And the inside, where it goes.

76yellow

I also have an antenna that does nothing. How can I bench test it ? I think there are 3 wires coming out of it.

jeff79'

Post # 2 by Mike (KapsSA) will tell you. He's an expert on this antenna stuff, and other stuff, for that matter....He was instrumental in getting mine working again...Thanks Mike !...I hope all is well...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...r-antenna.html

Just follow his instructions, using a regular car battery.

Tally Ho

Sent you a PM on checking the relay or you can just follow it here.

You will need an ohm meter to start with set to DC volts. The black lead is for ground, red for power. You should be reading around 12 volts if good.

Behind the left rear speaker there will be an antenna harness with three wires - green, grey, and white.

To test the relay in the down mode, the ignition should be ON and the radio OFF. The green wire will be ground and the white wire will be power.

To test the relay in the up mode, the ignition should be ON and the radio should be ON. The grey wire will now be ground and the green wire will be power.

If the relay test is good, your problem is the antenna. If the relay is bad, change it. The relay for a 79 is cheaper in cost and the bracket is easily modified using your 81 as a guide.

ButchN

My antenna mast quit & I found this.

Shipping was pretty quick.

Yellow1980

I installed a Metra Power antenna.

Here is a link to the installation I did:

http://www.calweb.com/~griffitt/MetraPowerAntenna.html

Tony G