Thanks everyone - replaced mine on Sat...
Not long ago, the antenna on my 2000 stopped retracting. It stopped moving at all. So for the last couple of months, I've been pushing it down when I'd run through the wash, and then pull it back up when I was done.
About 3 weeks ago, I forgot to put it down.
** SNAP **
So I jammed the busted mast into the hole, and I've been driving around with a half-tenna.
This is the first vehicle I've owned in probably 25 years. I've been leasing all my trucks since just after high school - so I retired the tools and stopped doing my own auto repairs when I finally kicked my POS Fiat to the curb and leased my first Toyota pick up.
Recently finding this forum and lurking for a bit has re-ignited a spark in me I thought was long extinguished. I decided to re-enter my self repair with a small, but vexing issue: Fixing my antenna.
With the information in this forum:
- I learned that if I can hear the motor running when I turn on and off the radio, there will be no need to replace the whole thing... just "the mast" (huge relief there...)
- I learned that a "mast" isn't just the metal antenna, as I always thought it was. In pictures, it always looked like a metal collapsible tube with a wire. Who knew the wire was a drive gear??!!??!!
- I found a cheap source for a mast. (AntennasRus or something like that) Mast showed up in about 4 days for about $35. Can't beat that.
- I learned that I didn't need to remove the tire. I just got under there, popped off the wheel well lining and was able to extract the broken coil o' drive gear from the power antenna box.
- I learned that I needed to align the teeth the correct way - so I had wifie turn on and of the radio while I spun the drive gear 90 degrees at a time. By the third try, it sucked it in like a piece of spaghetti into a hungry kid's mouth.
This whole process took about 30 minutes.
I've never had a vehicle with a retracting antenna, let alone ever repaired one. I've seen lots of Power Antenna on the shelves, but I had no idea how they worked.
This forum provided the knowledge and the resources, then emboldened me with the courage to tackle this one-banana job with confidence.
In a forum where people regularly rebuild their entire drive trains, it was so great to find something this simple, and be able to do it myself.
But, you've created a monstah. You should see the list I've got going now...
Thanks everyone.
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Ken