My original antenna coax cable was cut by a PO and I made an attempt to solder it back when putting in a new Crown power antenna as the original was long gone, which honestly worked better than I thought, but is still lacking some reception. I have been searching and doing research on trying to source a new antenna cable for my 88' GTA and think I may have found a solution to my severed OE antenna cable. I have not seen any used OE cables for sale anywhere but I did find this Goodmark GMK4012170701 which looks like it would mount to the antenna mast, then use the Metra 44 EC-48 cable to connect and cover the distance (maybe extra?) to the factory radio which already has the GM20 big barb to little barb adapter.

Goodmark GMK4012170701




Metra 44 EC-48




Then connecting lastly to the 40 GM20 which will plug directly into the OE radio.




I was curious if anyone else has tried this or has any feedback as I am not a huge audio guy but feel this may work. The only thing I have to look at more closely is the connection of the antenna to mast but it sure looks like it will fit.

 

Have you looked around at other GM cars of the era? Maybe they were similar. There is a guy in Georgetown, TX that rebuilds the factory antenna's, he may have some around or can tell you where to look.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...fixer-pop.html

 

Thanks! If this scheme I am working on doesn’t work I will reach out to him.

I think my plan will work but should know sometime next week when I get the parts. All in I am invested like $45 on parts.

 

Unfortunately after setting up the different antenna pieces with a spare power antenna that lost power up/down I had no improvement in reception. Might just be where I live has lousy FM reception except for a few stations and I will be using cassettes and the AUX mostly.

If anyone is interested the parts I listed will work, but the Goodmark part is a tight fit and wont fit flush, the antenna is hidden but maybe would have to worry about the elements getting in...

 

I am also sending back the UT4 radio to M&R to take another look at it, the guy who worked on it said something may not be right with it after I called about the poor FM reception and described what is going on.

 

What a pain to send it out twice. As much as I'd like to have a factory radio, the convenience of a retrosound unit is tempting.

 

Yeah its a pain to send it back again but at least its on their dime and their turnaround time is really quick. Everything else they did like refurb the cassette player and added AUX cable has worked great so hopefully they get the reception squared away. What sucks is the cost and lack of good options IMO for aftermarket radios for these cars that look era correct. Retrosound has some really nice options for the 50's-70's cars that look right at home.

 

I think this is what you need.

 

Any chance you have a part number on that? I was trying to find one and couldn’t. That’s the jeep style antenna cable to mast correct?

I was also curious if metra or someone else made a adapter cable to that which would hook up to the GM radio.

 

I dont see any marking on it, but it should connect to your OE cable. Looks identical to the crown antenna cable, but shorter.

 

I received my repaired radio back from M&R and now the radio reception is much improved, just in time for a little Fall cruising before the weather really goes to crap up here.