FocusGhia

My car came with a power antenna from the factory but when I bought the car it had a fixed one.

So I bought a s/hand one from another 3rd gen.

I was fitting it yesterday and ran into a problem (several actually but one I couldn't solve).

The power antenna has a straigtforward co-ax cable to the radio, and small wiring loom coming off it (3 wires) terminating in a 3 pin plastic connector which plugs into a 6 pin relay (which came supplied with the antenna).
This relay has 2 holes to screw/bolt it in somewhere and room for a 3 pin connector to plug into it (from the car loom somewhere).

The question is where does it go???
I'm assuming inside the passenger cabin?

Also where is the car wiring that plugs into this relay to power the antenna?

Trickster

You are correct in that it goes on the passenger side under the dash. If you look closely you might find the original one still in place. Here is a picture of its location.

FocusGhia

FANTASTIC!!!!


That was just what I needed!
What a great diagram.

Thanks v. much for taking the time to post the pic for me.

:hail:

Trickster

FocusGhia

Well I found the relay and plugged the antenna in (using the existing relay as it looks like a b**ch to get to to replace).

Turning the ignition or even radio on doesn't nake the antenna go up though.

Checking the relay there are two wires running to it from somewhere behind the radio, one is orange and one is pink.
I found the previous owner had hooked up the Kenwood CD Tuner to the cars original loom by cutting off the original radio connector from the loom and joining the Kenwoods wires to the cars wires using those little connector blocks.
There is a pink wire going into one of those but it isn't hooked up to anything on the Kenwood. Would that pink wire be the "turn on" signal for the power antenna?

If so what signal is it expecting to get, x number of volts?
I'm trying to figure out how to make it work when I turn on the ignition as the Kenwood doesn't appear to have any "turn on" output as all the other wires are used up for the speakers and 2 for power. The only spare are telephone mute.

Trickster

pink is the power wire for the antenna.

FocusGhia

Great.

I can't find an output to match so I'll wire a toggle switch between it and the ignition.

I'm assuming it just wants 12v?

FocusGhia

Got it working yesterday.

The centre section has a gentle kink in it that stop it from raising electrically. It gets stuck on that kink and you have to give it a slight tug for it continue on its merry way.

Tried bending it by hand but it seems fairly resistant and can't be sure that mny bending it the opposite direction will make my new bend happen at the same point (ie don't want to end up with an s shaped aeriel!)

Anyone managed to straighten one before?

Trickster

Cleaning it and lubing it with machine oil should help it a little.

FocusGhia

I tried lubing it with general purpose grease.
Yes I know it will catch dirt but it was all I had to hand to test it with.

It worked ok with the grease but after 3 cycles it would stick again as it had rubbed the grease off that spot.

The kink is enough that it has worn through to what looks like brass at that spot.

I'll try some WD40 or engine oil on it...