Power Antenna wiring 101 on a FJ62 (1 Viewer)

[mmw68]

So tonight over a couple of beers I decided to tear into my power Antenna so see why it was not working. The PO had installed a nice CD player, speakers, and new power antenna - but neither the radio or the FJ62 factory power antena switch on the dash operated the antenna.

After a hour under the hood with my test light, and My wife pushing buttons in the cab of the truck...this is what I found out. (she was a very good sport about it and now I owe her a night on the town )

Under the hood there is a factory two prong harness that is comming from the dash up/down switch. When you push the switch up - 12volt comes out of one side of the harness plug, and when you push down, 12 volts comes out of the other side of the harness.

The after market antenna that was installed works a little different. It has a red and a green wire. The red wire is for 12 volt constant directly to the battery, the green is for a 12 volt comming from the radio's antenna lead. So when you turn the radio on - 12 volts goes thru the green wire and the antenna go up, when it's off the antenna goes down using the 12 volts from the red wire.

In more basic terms:
up = needs 12 volts to both green and red
down = needs 12 volts to just red

Now Iam thinking... well that won't work with the factory dash switch, and I found out the radio 12 volt antenna lead is not working either. So I checked with SOR - they want $175 for a replacement FJ62 antenna!!!!

So I broke out a few Bosch relays and wired them up to use the Factory dash switch to operate this aftermarket antenna.

I drew up a little diagram so others can use it.

Now it's back to beer drinking!!

 

[dd113]

Nice write up. You can buy the entire assy from cruiserdan for around $118 and 20 min.

 

[mmw68]

David,
Thanks for the tip, Iam still a newbie. I'll start contacting Dan for parts when I need them. - Mark

 

[Mike S]

Nice use of common parts to get a solution.

I put an FJ62 electric antenna in my 60, but the price was not even close to what SOR wants!

Maybe we should call the SOAR for SOARing prices. The thing that ticks me off most about SOR is that, on top of teh high prices, they tack on 'shipping and handling' charges to juice the total order cost. They once charged me like $12 to send a leather steering wheel cover from SO CAL to NORCAL.

Welcome to TLC Land. You will get smart about how to find what you need, and still have gas money.

Mike S

 

[Carpe Discus]

OK, I'm thinking of this upgrade. Is there any reason to go OEM for the antenna (for a FJ60 in this case)? Besides getting to install the funky switch, I mean.

 

[Mike S]

Carp

See post above. OEM does not require any trick wiring or relays to use the stock switch.

 

[TheGr8Doughboy]

Speaking of SOAR and shipping costs! I got hit with $35 for a haynes manual shipping regular ground shipping! Figure that one out. I got my exhaust manifold shipped from maine for $11 and my steering gear from cruiserparts at a similar cost.

Chris

 

[fogblanket]

another reason not to go with the stock fj62 antenna is they just don't last long. I went threw 3 in 4 years. the first one was broken when I bought the cruiser next one got toasted in a car wash a branch got the next then the plastic cable snapped in the next. I have since switched to a fj60 manual antena and am much happier. the switch for the antena is going to be reused in the old electric mirror switch spot for an in cab winch control. got rid of the electric mirros too.
anyway I digress the plastic weed wacker spool coil that rasies the antena mast up and down is lame and gets caught on itself, and really doesn't like to be used all the time. if you really want a retractable antena I would look into some thing else i am sure a Caddy antena could be retro fitted. but for $12 on ebay i am sticking with the fj60 antena
Just my 2c
Jason

 

[mmw68]

Well now that I have this antenna working, Iam thinking of just pulling it out, and putting a solid one in. It just creeks and growns, and does not work very well any way.

-Mark

 

[Lzwo]

Funny this post came up. Was wheelin this past weekend, and now my antenna is positioned with a stylish 80* backwards rake. Guess the 10" of extension really cost me.
Was thinking of ordering a replacement mast, but now you've got me wondering. How hard would it be to substitute the manual antenna? Plug and play, or modifications required? Any reason to replace the power antenna? And I was already planning to do the in-cab winch control....
Of course, I could use the money I save on the antenna to go with XM.

 

[fogblanket]

its plug and play to put a fj60 antenna on your fj62, mine 20 degree rake last about 2 months before it snapped off. Unfortunately you can't just replace the mast on the fj62 antena you have to get the mast and plastic coil in that they are conected . last time i bought the set up it was like 30 bucks. I think the fj60 antena is a bit sturdier as well
Jason

 

[Mike S]

Well, the electric mast fits into the manual hole on my 60. Manual in the elcetric hole should work no problem.

The reason I put the electric antenna in was so that I could easily lower the mast when it was in danger of getting wrecked by brush, etc.

Go figure.

Mike S

 

[mwood5]

How's this for pulling up an old thread....
I've got a little time today as I was doing a few other things and thought I'd put in my OEM antenna that's been in my garage for over a year. I can't seem to find the plug for the dash switch? Anyone care to point me in the right direction? Where is it coming from, where might it be? I'm sure it's right there and I'm just not seeing it. The PO had a regular, cheapie antenna on there and probably, tucked that plug underneath something else. I just need to know which direction to look. Also, where is that ground (black wire) hooked to?

m

EDITED....I found it.....plug was hidden beneath the wiring harness....just as i thought.

m

 

[cruiser_guy]

Well, the electric mast fits into the manual hole on my 60. Manual in the elcetric hole should work no problem.

The reason I put the electric antenna in was so that I could easily lower the mast when it was in danger of getting wrecked by brush, etc.

Go figure.

Mike S

That's exactly why I put an electric antenna in my truck too!

The manual mast got the artful raked look, the rubber ducky had crappy reception and eventually fell off so I got the electric one out of an FJ62 in the wreckers and found a '60 series switch and just plugged it into the existing harness.

 

[DoubleNickels]

Oh man oh man, love this forum. I'm wrestling with the very same issue right now - installing an aftermarket power antenna replacement. You just saved me... tons. Thanks guys.

 

[DoubleNickels]

BTW, this never worked for me. Not sure if it was a different antenna or what, but as I understand the diagram above you'd need a diode placed in between the relays to truly toggle one or both at the same time. Also, the single-throw-dual-switch nature of the rocker switch simply reverses polarity of the input wires, which again makes the case for a diode. Anyway, just wanted to update in case someone else searches for this very thing.

 

[Gwhitloccrna]

So I know this is an older forum, but I have followed the above wire diagram to a tee. I can get the antenna up, but not down. I need some help. I tested the antenna on a small 12v battery and it appears, like stated above, both the red and green wires need power for up and only the red needs power for down. I understand that concept well, however; if you remove both red and green wires from the battery and then place just the red back to battery(power) nothing happens.
I think the red wire needs constant power, which the above diagram doesn't do due to the relays acting as a switch. Also the OEM Antenna switch in my FJ62 sits neutral(no power) til you activate either the up or down switch.
Maybe it's the model of aftermarket antenna(Metra) or just me, but I need help. Is there anyway to supply the red with constant power, skipping the relay or not activating the diode switch?
Cheers,

 

[DoubleNickels]

I agree that the circuit as designed does not function. Tell me this: with your aftermarket antenna, what happens if you just reverse polarity? Meaning you have red and green touching one 12V battery terminal, black touching the other.... then switch terminals. If that causes the motion to reverse, as it did with my aftermarket antenna from RockAuto, then wiring it in is a cinch since the stock antenna circuit causes such a reverse of polarity. Start there and let me know what you find.

 

[Gwhitloccrna]

I tried that as well. After doing the reverse polarity and switching the up/down switch wires, now the Down function puts the antenna mast up, but the Up function does nothing. You can hear the diode click, but again I feel it needs direct current with no interruption to function properly. I may however come up with a solution. I think that I purchased a Full Automatic antenna instead of a Semi-auto antenna. The Full automatic goes up with ignition and Radio on, hence the constant power source, the semi-auto is switch activated so it may work out finally. I will mess around with it this weekend and let everyone know how I make out. Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[DoubleNickels]

You bet, glad to help. I went through a LOT of effort monkeying around with relays for no reason. Let us know what you find.