I replaced my broken antenna mast with a new one. The plastic ribbon fed into the electric reel as expected. All looked good. The manual switch raised and lowered the mast perfectly. The problem showed up when the key switch or radio was turned off. The antenna lowers as expected but then the mast motor continues to run making a gear stripping loud noise for about 30 seconds. Then when the key switch or radio is turned on the antenna only raises about 6”. It will then only extend by using the manual switch repeatedly up and down a few times and the antenna eventually raises. But then when the key switch or radio is turned off the gear stripping noise repeats after the antenna lowers.
Loud gear grinding noise after power antenna lowers.
- Thread starter Glg2003
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antenna gears are probably stripped. I think you just need a new antenna mast. I would take it apart and inspect.
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Wyatt. Thank you for response. I have removed the mast and the teeth on the plastic cord look good. The mast raises and lowers normal with the manual rocker switch. The malfunction occurs when the key switch or radio is turned off. The mast lowers but the motor continues to run for about 20 seconds after the mast fully lower making the gear grinding noise. Then when radio is turned back on the mast only raises 1”-6”. I can get the mast back up by using the manual rocker switch up and down a few times to work the mast back up. Turn the key or radio off and the whole cycle repeats. Thoughts? Advice?
Interesting. Neither my '93 or '95 power antenna moved on their own. Up or down was by the dash switch only. If you hold the switch at the end of travel, it will make a loud clunking sound.
My '97 automatically auto raises and lowers with the radio turning on and the truck turning off.
@Glg2003 What Year Truck?? maybe if you raise the antenna all the way up and then turn the truck off it will get the timing right ( guessing).
@Glg2003 What Year Truck?? maybe if you raise the antenna all the way up and then turn the truck off it will get the timing right ( guessing).
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I tried that. Nothing seems to work.
What year is your cruiser?
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It’s a 99
You are in the wrong forum. a 1999 US cruiser is a 100 Series
I replaced my stripped mast and there were parts of the old mast (curved chunks of the white gear strip) leftover inside. If you didn't remove those, they can make some racket.
My 97 antenna always pops up 2" and won't go any lower. Is this normal?
My 97 antenna always pops up 2" and won't go any lower. Is this normal?
This is normal with the radio on. When you turn your truck off it should fully retract. If it doesn't there may be more remnants from the old antenna in the housing still
Copy that. It retracts fully. I don't listen to the radio, just my phone/tablet and always have to remember to power off the radio at the car wash, don't want to bend the nub!
HI. Just following up on this post as I cannot see you have a resolution here, and I have the same issue.
Did you get this sorted?
Wondering if anyone has tried to unplug the harness connector/wire going from the antenna assembly (motor) to the auto up/down antenna ECU to see if the antenna will continue to work with the push buttons, but not go up/down everytime the radio is turned on/off??
@Glg2003 - Did you ever resolve your antenna noise problem? My older 95 Land Cruiser factory antenna was strictly manual operation, push the button to go up or push the button to go down, and it made the nasty clacking sound when it reached the end of its motion (ie all the way up or all the way down). I now have a 40th Anniversary 97 Land Cruiser and just replaced the broken aftermarket power antenna assembly with a brand new stock Toyota power antenna from the dealership (p/n 86300-60050). It appears to go up and down fine, but when I turn off the the key the antenna retracts, bottoms out and starts with the clacking for about 20-30 seconds.... It's very very annoying and I cannot believe Toyota designed it to do this; no customer would put up with that racket. So, on studying the 97 Electrical Wiring Diagam manual (pg 118) you can see the diagram is quite different from the 95; on the 97 there's an extra module called the AUTO ANTENNA ECU (A28) that appears to control the antenna automatic up and down operation with the activation of the radio (purple or violet wire). I also appears to have a motor current sense circuit that I am going to guess is intended to stop the antenna motor when it reaches the ends and starts clacking. Maybe my ANTENNA ECU is not working correctly.
At this point I'm a little bummed after spending all the money for the factory antenna only to find out it doesn't work properly...
Does anyone have any other knowledge on this module/antenna operation?
Well upon closer reading and study it seems the bottom line is that antenna p/n 86300-60050 is not the correct antenna for the 97 Land Cruiser. It's probably fine in all years before 97 that do not use the AUTO ANTENNA ECU. The correct antenna for the 97 is the 86300-60080... The difference being that the 60080 has an extra cable on it that connects to 4-pin connector A27 at the antenna access hole in the engine compartment and is the feedback signal of the antenna position to the AUTO ANTENNA ECU module. From the wiring diagram I suspect this is a simple potentiometer signal to the Antenna ECU module. It seems this antennas is apparently long out of production / discontinued. Cruiser Dan seems to have them available as used/rebuilt for a not insignificant price. So what to do? What to do? More research tomorrow to see if I can hack the Antenna ECU to at least just let me run the damn antenna up and down with no feedback input! I really don't care if it's automatic with the radio or ignition.
The feedback signal seems to be from a magnetic encoder. The auto antenna ECU has UP/DOWN relays that are controlled by the UP/DOWN buttons. It should be possible to hack the ECU to just use the buttons and relays. It would be a popular solution!
That is how mine works. (94) It doesn’t do anything unless you do it yourself.