scorp508

Holy hell was that a job and a half! My mast had been stuck up probably since 2001 and it never really bothered me. I bought a replacement mast/cord at that time and never put it in. Well I tried to, but I could NOT figure out how the antenna lead disconnected in the car and almost broke it so I just said screw it and put the car back together that day.

Today seemed like a good day to try it again. It went something like this.

1. Remove left rear wheel. Simple.

2. Remove inner fender panel. Simple

3. Remove both left taillights. ALWAYS a friggen dream to do.

4. Disconnect antenna power lead. Simple

5. Disconnect antenna ground strap from frame. The g'damn thing wouldn't come out. The bolt (I think it is a self tapping sheet metal screw) just spun and spun. I had to cut the head off with a die grinder & cutting wheel and punch the leftovers inside the frame.

6. Disconnect antenna signal lead inside car. HOW!?!?!?! This friggen thing would NOT disconnect. It is a piece of RG59 coax cable and the connector is near the left-hand side of the cargo shade under some foam tucked away. You could spin it, push it in, push and twist, pull until you **** your own pants. Nothing worked. I finally said FINE and cut the damn thing and would deal with it later.

7. Pull antenna signal and power leads out rear of car. Oh this was a joy, there is a hard rubber grommet holding them in. It took me a while to get this s.o.b to pull out.

8. Unscrew antenna mast nut. Simple, done by hand.

9. Remove antenna motor unit braket holding bolts from car. These were effing tight. I had to break out a 1/2" impact gun and 10mm socket.

10. Remove antenna.

11. Remove 4 eyelets from antenna motor housing. Lovely, 4 friggen rivit type things, but not exactly. We ended up using a grinding stone to grind away the shoulder on one side and push them out the other side.

12. Remove 5 clips from the housing. Simple.

From here it was straightforward. You pop the mast out and transfer a couple soft pieces to the new mast. Then you wrap the new cable around the gear in the housing. I cleaned up the gears and packed them full of some new white grease.

So I get the motor back together and have to deal with the fact that those 4 eyelit things are now destroyed. Thankfully we had some rivets for our pop-rivet gun that were big enough and held the case nicely. Issue avoided!

Now its on to the antenna signal lead issue. What in the hell to do with that mess? Well, since it is coax I went off to Radio Shack to get a coax stripper and crimper. The kid there was as useful as a screen door on a submarine so I then went to Home Depot and found what I needed myself. I got a $25 combo stripper/crimper that does both RG6 and RG59. I really wanted the $60 each tools, but lets be real I might use it 1 more time in my life. I then got some F-connectors and a package of female to female F-connector adapters.

I get home and cut the cable to prep it for a connector. Thankfully that goes pretty well and the crimper worked great. I put an F-Connector on the piece that connects to the antennna mast itself and another on the piece still in the car. Now about that female to female deal. The signal cable in the middle of this caox cable is THIN, real damn thin. When you try to put the F2F adapter on it just buckles and doesn't have enough force to go into the adapter because it needs to squeeze between two metal springs inside it to make a good connection. SO.... we diddle with that for a while and finally dad finds a nice small metal pick and pushes that gently into both sides of the adapter. It effectly weakened the springs juuuuust enough for the signal wire to slide in and still get a snug connection. Phew....

So, I start putting things back together and it starts to rain. A severe thunderstorm out of nowhere. Figures!!! After the rain stops I get it together and used a new self-taping sheet metal screw for the ground strap.

What a friggen ordeal just to make the antenna go up and down again. But... the radio reception is MUCH better now. I must have really f'd up that antenna signal line when I tried to disconnect it last time.

Oh yeah.... we put that connector thing in the vice and had to put vice grips on one side and then hammer the grips to pop it apart. Apparently it is a ONE TIME USE connector. Inside of it are 3 metal prongs that spring out and lock it in place. Think of an arrow that you can't just pull out of a body. The same concept was used in this piece. I have no idea why the Helm manual just says 'disconnect lead'. YOU CAN'T without destroying it and doing what I did.

AGENT 86

Sounds like a nightmare
I must be the lucky one because when i did mine everything went smoothly

scorp508

How did you get that antenna lead apart? Please do tell. Is '87 a nightmare 1-year only that they used this blasted piece?

hngacurv

Mine was a pretty simple swap. I did this 2 years ago and trying to remember.
1-Remove wheel and fender well.
2-I did not remove taillights(I have elims and could reach everything quite well from either the fender well or from underneath).
3-Removed nut from underneath that held it flush with body
4-Antenna lead had 2 small screws holding it to the tube
5-My motor casing had several clips holding the 2 sides together which slid off and back on

Entire job took around 1hr, but I drug my feet while doing it.

scorp508

I wanted to use those, but I was determined to do it how the book did just to try and prove it wrong. You didn't have the eyelet things holding the case together? I had those plus the clips.

And yeah.... elims are seeming even better now. I hate those taillights.

jmrl98

Thanks for the detail scorp! 2 weeks ago my antenna motor kept running and running - with the antenna already up! It won't go down, so I'm changing the whole unit once my frame of mind shifts to patience mode. I have a 85 so I'm sure it will have some roadblocks!

JackDidley

I can have the driver side Flowmaster off my 87 in a couple minutes. Makes the antena job do-able.

JohnyH

Reads like your perseverance and determination paid off in the end!

65Z01

Brian that sounds like the R&R project from hell but you got the deal done.

It's amazing how many times Megiver comes to the rescue on one of the "simple" jobs.

So, though the Shop Manual is a necessity, some creative engineering is often needed too.

scorp508

So could I, but look at the fun we'd miss out on.

ittlfly

And after all that you didn't install an antenna bypass switch so you don't have to do this again?

CentralCoaster

my connector must have been just as bad. The prev owner just hacked the coax apart and twisted it back together.. Reception sucks.

I still need to track down a replacement ribbon. And Ecklers can kiss my ***.

hngacurv

No eyelits. I just recently sold it or I'd go look again. Maybe the previous owner replaced the motor.

DieL

i cut the wires so the antenna stays flush. Looks better and no loss reception. IMO the only thing on the exterior of a c4 that looks old school is the steel antenna that looks crooked, thats why i hide mine

scorp508

Yikes, why'd you cut them? Just unplug the motor plug that is under the rear center hatch trim piece.

onedef92

I feel your pain, Scorp. I replaced the the mast on my '92 four years ago and it's still opening and closing great. Had to remove the entire assembly just like you did.