I know its an old thread but i thought i would contribute. I had just bought my GTA 3 years ago and had checked the radio and the power antena went up and down just fine. I drove it home (abt 90 miles) and raised it at speed (70) and then got a cell call. I turned off the radio and it broke. then I had the motor all the time running. luckily the prev owner installed a kill switch for the battery so it was less of a pain. I took it to an ex Pontiac shop and I had purchased the rebuild kit from a dealer (they had to order it from one of the other dealers in state) and I had the second to last one in the state. The tore the motor apart and said it was too jamed up inside to be fixed. I asked them to unplug the harness then and cut the white cable to the mast so I could lower it myself. thats what I do now. If I want I stick something in to pull it out (paper clip) and raise it to listen to music.

I now use my ipod which I bought a charger for that boradcasts on FM and I can pick it up just fine and play my 80s tunes as much as I want! (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i00) is the fm transmitter. works for me. btw.. I have the rebuild mast still. perfect shape but I think I will keep it in case I wanna rebuild myself....

 

I don't trust dealers opinions. The motors are pretty simple. I bet if you take that thing apart, you can put the new cable in. Plus, there is a way to fix it with metal cable. JMHO.

 

I figure that is true. I just dont have time or motivation. thats why I am keeping the cable to do it some other time but i worry it will break shortly thereafter.

I know mine broke cause it was stored a long time and unused so the mast was not greased and when it was at speed and tried to lower there was more tension on it which then caused it to snap.

what kind of metal cable would work? how would that be done?

 

2Quick6 is a member here also. He posted this over on Turbobuick.com when he repaired his power antenna in his TTA. FYI - the buick power antennas are similar, if not the same.
http://turbobuick.com/forums/threads...-again.369135/

 

well I know what i'm going to try before I blow another $35 on a nylon mast.

 

I don't think GM has them anymore. You may find some overpriced NOS ones on Ebay, or another option is to buy the whole mast assembly for about a hundred bucks. The cable idea is great IMHO. If mine breaks again, this is what I am trying.

 

You can buy ones made for early c4 corvettes that fit just fine, It is not as strong a nylon as it should be mine ended up kinking in a few days.

 

That write up intrigued me so much I had to do it after work today. I didn't weld the cable in though, mine had brass ends that I was able to fill with solder get good and hot and insert the cable, then fill the empty areas with it.

If this holds up ill try this on my bonnevilles broken antenna before I pay gm $60 for another mast for that car.

 

Do you have any pics?

 

I thought about taking some, but decided against it as that other thread covered it pretty well.

 

I found a guy on the AACA forums that fixes power antennas. He uses a plastic coated steel cable, much like the OEM setup. For $50 or $60, I was thinking of using this guy since I have not been able to get my antenna fixed. He guarantees his work for life!

The GM repair kits are as worthless today as the original antenna because the nylon cord is the same age and will break in no time at all. I'm glad to see that someone figured a new way using this cable method. I plan on hitting up the Home Depot today to get the cable. One question for those that have done this already, will standard copper pipe flux core solder hold these together, or do I need a different type of solder/torch. I don't have any other metal working tools other than for copper plumbing. Thanks

 

Scott - do you have contact info? Someone might want to use him here. 60 Bucks is a good deal.

 

When my power antenna went on my 85 Trans Am, my Mechanic who worked for a Pontiac Dealer for 25 years said the GM repair kits were soo and would break not long after the repair.

A new GM antenna is a newer revised slim design that is still available from GM for 144 bucks, so I went with that option and it looks and works great.

Check it out at Gmpartsdirect.com

GM PART # 88891017
CATEGORY: Power Radio Antenna Module
PACK QTY: 1
CORE CHARGE: $0.00

List Price:$279 Price:$144 You Save:$135 (48%) DESCRIPTION: ANTENNA

For all the aggrevation going back and forth on repairs, I felt the New one was the way to go for me.

Hope this helps

Rob

 

And for some, that is the way to go. For me, I need to keep my car look original as it's a low mile car. It's not perfect, but years from now, nobody will look at my car and be able to list the non original parts.

The guys contact info at the AACA website is below. He emailed me his address and phone number, but I don't want to list that here. Tell him I gave you his contact info so he doesn't get paranoid.
email = Barney@texas.net

Here's the thread I found.
http://forums.aaca.org/f200/power-an...ir-306414.html

 

I understand where your coming from, but if your replacing a part with a GM original replacement part, I would still consider the car original.

If it was aftermarket, then yes I would agree with you.

My intention was to make you aware that GM still make the Power Antenna for F-body cars and it was another option to consider since GM parts are coming scarce for these vehicles.

Hope all works out well for you

Later
Rob

 

1985, you might still consider the car original, but judges at shows, when doing 1000 point judging, don't. Based on what you're saying, an IROC-Z with the 91/92 hood blisters will also work. It is not correct and many people want to keep their car as correct as possible for future reference.

Back to the topic with the antenna repair...I purchased 48" of the 3/32" cable at Home Depot, started the torch and melted out all of the old nylon still attached to the antenna and the mast. I did measure the original length of the cable before using my Dremel to cut the new cable to exact lengths. The Dremel kept the ends perfectly round and not mashed up due to side cutters.

I I inserted the cable ends into the mast and hook, heated them up and dropped some solder into the ends. I held the end steady until the solder hardened to keep things aligned and in place. Once everything was soldered in, I put the antenna back together and then put the car back together. The antenna works flawlessly again with no extra noise or binding. I'm happy again!!!

 

Thats about what I did, I used lead based solder for electrical application since its all I had, I had to wait a bit to burn most of the flux off but after that it works good, feels solid and it works great now. I'm going to try this same method on my buddies 88' Fleetwood since it looks to use the same if not a very similar power antenna.

 

Scott, I just found a correct P.A. at a junkyard and bought it. It needs cosmetic work - which I'll handle, but it's stuck in the UP position. Using the info you posted, I emailed Barney to see if he still does the repairs. My questions for you:

1. Did you end up having him do the repair
2. If so, has it help up and is everything working smoothly?

 

I did the repair myself. Look at post 116. It wasn't difficult to do at all. Like I mentioned, I purchased 48" of the cable, heated both ends of the antenna to melt out the nylon, inserted one end of the cable into the hook end and melted solder around it and let it set up. I cut the cable to be the same length the nylon was, inserted the the cable into the top mast of the antenna and soldered it on. I now had a replacement antenna repair kit! Yes, it still works fine and I don't expect to ever have the cable break again. My only concern is the solder joint, but it seemed fairly secure when I put it together.

 

I took the antenna apart, but it appears to be an older version than the one used as an example here: http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums...r-antenna.html

Mine doesn't have all of the same parts, possibly because it is 10 years older.

The only thing I am unsure of is where the other end of the wire is. The nylon string had broken and one metal clip is inside the gear, but how do I access the second metal end which is inside the antenna itself? Do I have to remove the antenna from the mast first? If so, how did you go about it? The above article I posted was good, but now that I've begun, there's a lot of steps he omitted and/or could have explained better. And also previously mentioned was the fact that our antennas are slightly different. I've been taking photos of my progress so far and will later update this thread or make a new one with full photos since at least this antenna will be exclusive to third gens.

 

I think you need to unscrew the ball on the end. Then it comes out. It has been awhile since I took mine apart but I believe that is the way it comes out.

 

The ball/finial at the top is screwed on. You need to remove that and the top piece of the antenna will fall out the bottom. You'll see where the nylon attaches in there. Be very careful when trying to remove the finial so you don't mark up the finial or the antenna itself.

 

I have done the same repair that Scott mentions on a couple of antennas and they are still working great without any problems. It was very easy and cheap!

 

Very cool, I have two power antenna that have this usual problem. I don't want to spend money for something I will barely use now that I have an auxiliary input to my original radio, but it's a bit irritating to have something that doesn't work properly in a freshly restored car.
I'm gonna try this.

 

Keeping the dead thread going -- is 88891017 the entire assembly (motor + mast)?

 

The GM part number 88891017 is the new power antenna I used in my 85 Trans Am. Looks more slender that the original GM one it replaced. Comes as the whole unit with hardware.

Do noy buy from the dealer, go to www.gmpartsdirect.com

88891017 - ANTENNA

GM PART # 88891017
CATEGORY: Power Radio Antenna Module
PACK QTY: 1
CORE CHARGE: $0.00


List Price:$279.90Price:$142.75You Save:$137.15 (49%) DESCRIPTION: ANTENNA

Hope this helps

 

I am doing the steel cable this weekend. Going to do it once and be done. Even if it did come apart, I am only out some solder or a quick weld and some time.

Sure don't make sense to me, in my situation, to replace the whole motor or just the nylon part. I don't drive this thing enough...

I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

Were any mods needed to install the antenna? Is it a direct replacement for the original?

 

Sorry but i need some help here. How exactly do you remove the ball? I used a vise to hold the mast and tried to remove the ball but its stuck. And how long is the cable? Someone have opened the antenna and removed some of the old cable.


Thanks in advance.

 

The mast is threaded on top and the ball screws on.

 

You can use a 9/32" socket on the "ball". It doesn't mark it up at all, unlike pliers.

 

I just did the repair from post #116. so far it has worked out well.
Thanks, I am glad to have found this post.

 

Let me ask this.....all o you are complaining that your antenna cable broke, motor keeps running? My issue is diff. I have an 84 Trans Am with 36K orig miles, stays in warehouse and is used about 150 to 200 miles a year. All miles were the first two years of the cars life. The antenna has always had an issue such as it would not go down as soon as car or radio were off, it would go down later....10 min to next day. Other times it would work right then. Well, a week ago i drove it, antenna went up, but when turned off didn't go down. It has been a week now. I do not here the motor running so it is not the same issue as all of you have had. When I turn radio on and off, I do here the click (half second later) on passenger side under dash as if it was trying to send signal to antenna? What are the thoughts? A relay gone bad?

 

If you hear the relay click, it might be working. To check, when the antenna is commanded down, the white wire should have 12v and the green wire should have ground. If that's the result you are seeing at the relay, you most likely have a problem with the circuit breaker inside the motor (which is what I suspect in your case).

 

Can anyone confirm if this is o.e. replacement.

 

Its a OE replacement that will work just fine but its not 100% correct for restorations.

 

I was
wondering how it looks on the car as compared to a stock antenna.

 

That's what he is saying. It does not look like the original, so from a 1000 point restoration standpoint, it's not correct, but it will work and is the GM replacement for our antenna. GM also sells replacement floor mats for our cars. They are not the exact same design as ours were from the factory, but they are a replacement design that will fit the car, so GM gives a part number that will work. It might not be an exact looking piece as original, but it'll do the job if that's all you care about.

 

I was just curious if anyone has used one of these replacements and if they could post a pic of it.

 

For you those have fixed this problem, would you recommend welding the cable or using a solder gun for the cable? Thanks

 

This is good info... when I got my GTA, I didn't know I had a power antenna because the PO had already cut the green wire.

I found out when I accessed the ECM. Some time prior to that, I had a run-in with a deer, and it snapped my antenna mast, among other damage.

Going to Eckler's, I found that the kit previously mentioned is still available, for around 40 bucks... it's for a vette, but as injdinjn points out, it is adaptable for use with our cars. It's on my list.

 

Wow! $40 for something that might break again really soon. I went through three kits in less than two years before finally doing the cable mod. I was buying these repair kits for $15-$17 as recently as 2010. If you want to spend $40 for this, go ahead, but it's way overpriced and may break again due to the potential age of the nylon.

The solder option has worked for me, but my car doesn't get driven daily so I can't talk of durability. I've not had any issues with mine since, but again, it doesn't get used much. The weld would have to be very small so that the top mast could slide easily inside the lower masts. The solder flowed inside nicely. I'm not a welder so I can tell you that I would screw that up.

 

I did the cable/solder job about a year ago after the kit I bought from Ecklers failed inside of a couple of days. Cost me next to nothing and is still working good a year later I don't daily drive my car but I drive it quite a bit when the weather is nice.

 

That will teach me not to read every single post in a thread. I skipped over the ones that said the Eckler's kit kept breaking, and also the ones about the steel cable.

Years ago, I bought an aftermarket power antenna, and the plastic cable broke within 6 months. So I cleverly decided to use a steel cable that I soldered in place of the old plastic cable. The result was that I effectively grounded the antenna, rendering it useless.

Apparently, in this case, a steel cable is a viable option. Thanks for pointing that out.

The Eckler's kit appealed to me because it had a new antenna mast, which I need thanks to the deer strike. Any thoughts on the cheapest way to get my hands on a replacement mast?

 

My cable just broke again. Time to replace it with a piece of steel cable.

 

Scott - did you use solder for sweating pipes or for electronics?

 

You know, I don't remember. It makes sense that I would use pipe solder because I used a torch to heat things up, but I don't know if I still had any pipe solder. I'm thinking I used pipe solder. I don't know if the electronic solder would hold up. But then again, the area to solder is small and pipe solder is much thicker and could make a large mess in comparison to the electronics solder.

 

I think I am going to give the pipe solder a shot. Damn thing broke again today and I refuse to use that plastic crap again. I think I am going to play with it next week.

 

Thanks. I'll give it a try this weekend. I think I'll just give it a tack weld and hop it holds!

 

I've been researching replacement masts, and they cost more than the repair kit, when you can find them. I'm open to suggestion.