Decided to try and fix my busted antenna. Took it all apart, cut off and re-flanged the shaft, shortened the nylon cord and put it back together. Works good.
Stuff I learned:
Should not have separated the individual antenna tubes. Now the fittings (spring stablizers) are worn and it can come apart if the antenna sticks when opening.
The antenna shaft (tube it moves up and down in) has a 3-pronged metal stablizer inside of it that gets screwed up when you pull out the broken off antenna. I used a rod to hammer them out but next time I would drill them out. I had to remove the stablizer in order to get the antenna to fully close. Don't seem to miss it.
The nylon cord needs to be shortened by more than the amount of damaged antenna you remove. And you should mock up the cord length to the extended antenna. The gears are going to rotate the same as when the antenna was new but unless the nylon cord is shortened its going to try and open the antenna to its original length. And if you have weakened the antenna tube connections like I did you will separate the tubes.
I reassembled the antenna tubes by wrapping string around the metal stablizer prongs to hold them tight against the tube and sliding the two tubes back together. It was not easy for me to do this.
To reflange the new antenna base I just used needle nose plyers. A small flange tool would be ideal.
I also crimped the base to give it a groove which is used if the metal stablizer in the antenna tube is in place and not damaged. Since I don't think the broken antenna can be removed without damaging the stablizer I don't think this groove is needed.
Pictures tell the story:
Stuff I learned:
Should not have separated the individual antenna tubes. Now the fittings (spring stablizers) are worn and it can come apart if the antenna sticks when opening.
The antenna shaft (tube it moves up and down in) has a 3-pronged metal stablizer inside of it that gets screwed up when you pull out the broken off antenna. I used a rod to hammer them out but next time I would drill them out. I had to remove the stablizer in order to get the antenna to fully close. Don't seem to miss it.
The nylon cord needs to be shortened by more than the amount of damaged antenna you remove. And you should mock up the cord length to the extended antenna. The gears are going to rotate the same as when the antenna was new but unless the nylon cord is shortened its going to try and open the antenna to its original length. And if you have weakened the antenna tube connections like I did you will separate the tubes.
I reassembled the antenna tubes by wrapping string around the metal stablizer prongs to hold them tight against the tube and sliding the two tubes back together. It was not easy for me to do this.
To reflange the new antenna base I just used needle nose plyers. A small flange tool would be ideal.
I also crimped the base to give it a groove which is used if the metal stablizer in the antenna tube is in place and not damaged. Since I don't think the broken antenna can be removed without damaging the stablizer I don't think this groove is needed.
Pictures tell the story:
