Well, looks like it's antenna changeout time here. The 97 got a new one yesterday, the 93 got one today. The original 93 was arced simply from years of resisting the wind, I guess, and the 97 came with a free 93 antenna in the glovebox. PO must not have had Cdan to get him the correct parts!
Anyhow, this is the second 93 mast I've replaced and I have a tip I discovered when I changed my bro in law's 93 mast.
When you try to unscrew the plastic cable from the antenna base, all you have is a little squared ferrule to grip and not much of it protrudes to grab with needle nose pliers. And you have to keep the tip of the antenna from spinning when you are unscrewing this ferrule. The ball on top is no help as it will spin with little resistance, so you have to grip the actual antenna rod. Unfortunately, you cannot expose much rod or you won't have much ferrule showing at the bottom.
So. On the tip of the rod, expose just enough rod to get the tip of a pair of needle nose on it, then use vice grips to get a good strong grip. Then you can use another pair of needle nose to twist the ferrule at the bottom. Note that only the bottom half of the ferrule at the bottom comes off, so don't grab the entire ferrule - only the bottom half.
First time it took me an hour of screwing around. This time it took me 5 minutes.
DougM
Anyhow, this is the second 93 mast I've replaced and I have a tip I discovered when I changed my bro in law's 93 mast.
When you try to unscrew the plastic cable from the antenna base, all you have is a little squared ferrule to grip and not much of it protrudes to grab with needle nose pliers. And you have to keep the tip of the antenna from spinning when you are unscrewing this ferrule. The ball on top is no help as it will spin with little resistance, so you have to grip the actual antenna rod. Unfortunately, you cannot expose much rod or you won't have much ferrule showing at the bottom.
So. On the tip of the rod, expose just enough rod to get the tip of a pair of needle nose on it, then use vice grips to get a good strong grip. Then you can use another pair of needle nose to twist the ferrule at the bottom. Note that only the bottom half of the ferrule at the bottom comes off, so don't grab the entire ferrule - only the bottom half.
First time it took me an hour of screwing around. This time it took me 5 minutes.
DougM
