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Old 6th August 2010, 13:39   #1
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Repairing a power antenna

Well, one of my friend was playing with my car's power antenna when he broke it, the antenna broke loose and since he was a friend i just ignored it, when my car got painted the vacant power antenna slot looked very odd,

Repairing a power antenna-2.jpg

so i went to mitsu A S S and as usual the part is not available so i just asked for the price and he said 4k + so i had a good reason to ignore that vacant slot where the antenna belonged. But the A S S guy gave me a phone number to call who deals with local power antenna and other car accessories, i was planning a weekend at wife place in trichur so i thought let me also try the pattalam market which is the biggest junk yard market in kerala, well the shopkeepers were very funny there, they wanted 4k for a 10 year old power antenna from a totaled car, i left the place cursing my friend who broke it. so when i reached back i called this dealer and he had the antenna available for 1k with fitting and gave me a 6 months replacement warranty on it. I was happy, wife used to look through the rear view mirror on her side every time the antenna went up/down. But wait this is not a the end, exactly 3 days after sixth month of installation the antenna stopped going up. so took it back and he was nice to examine it and said the board is gone so only option is to buy a new one, Well i didnt want to pay for the same piece of crap again so i headed home, on the way home i got an idea and decided to swap working parts from my old mits antenna. well the mitsu antenna is bigger and heavy and after 10 years i still hear the motor whine so let me repair this one for a comparison between the two

Repairing a power antenna-4.jpg

Tools used

Repairing a power antenna-1.jpg

Opened the power antenna

Repairing a power antenna-7.jpg

Repairing a power antenna-6.jpg

The antenna is a lot like those id card retractor pulleys, they were easy to understand, i took the metal antenna from the local one and installed it in the Mitsu one and guess what it works. Well did the DIY end there? No it didn't. I also painted the rocker arm cover matt black and stuck a ralliart sticker on top of the mitsu logo.

Repairing a power antenna-8.jpg

Repairing a power antenna-9.jpg

Well, thanks for reading, sorry for not posting detailed step by step images as the antenna had a lot of grease and i didnt want to spoil my camera.


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Last edited by pramodkumar : 6th August 2010 at 13:43.
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Old 6th August 2010, 14:31   #2
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Wow, fantastic! That's the spirit.

Never could figure this out, BTW. An ID card retractor is passive power, i.e. the coiled spring gets 'charged' by pulling the cord out (same as spring loaded tape measures), and reels in the cord when it returns to normal state. How does the antenna rod, which is normally pulled in, go out slowly? Why doesn't it go back/in with a snap, instead of smoothly being pulled in? Is there something stiff inside the antenna rod which can push it out, but is soft enough to be coiled by the motor?
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Old 6th August 2010, 16:15   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DerAlte View Post
Wow, fantastic! That's the spirit.

Never could figure this out, BTW. An ID card retractor is passive power, i.e. the coiled spring gets 'charged' by pulling the cord out (same as spring loaded tape measures), and reels in the cord when it returns to normal state. How does the antenna rod, which is normally pulled in, go out slowly? Why doesn't it go back/in with a snap, instead of smoothly being pulled in? Is there something stiff inside the antenna rod which can push it out, but is soft enough to be coiled by the motor?

The only difference is the motor reverses the action . i will post some detailed pics when wife is ready to be a cameraman



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Old 6th August 2010, 16:18   #4
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Very Good stuff. My power antenna stopped working when somebody tilted the metal antenna. Now just the motor works but the antenna does not go back in the enclosure completely.
I never thought of opening it until now. Will do it over the weekend. Lets see if it works for me as well.
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Old 6th August 2010, 16:19   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Abeer View Post
Very Good stuff. My power antenna stopped working when somebody tilted the metal antenna. Now just the motor works but the antenna does not go back in the enclosure completely.
I never thought of opening it until now. Will do it over the weekend. Lets see if it works for me as well.
PM me if you need any help.


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Old 8th August 2010, 11:40   #6
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I opened up the Power Antenna and took out the Antenna. If you look at the pictures, it is bent due to which it was not closing completely.
I tried to hammer the dent to repair it but it does not work.
If I take out the plastic wire from this Antenna, can I put the same in other manual Antenna that I have?
Attached Thumbnails
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Old 9th August 2010, 17:13   #7
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The wire needs to be fixed to the innermost(thinnest) element, you can do it yourself ifyou afe confident you can stamp the end point with something pointed and blunt so that the thinnest element and the plastic strip gets fixed as one, the second option is to separate (by pulling) the dented part and the concentric tube inwhich it goes and cut the dented part using a hacksaw blade without flattening it, Second option is to use a cutting plair and straighten the bent area so that they can slide in without effort, but if you press to much the concentric tube which is supposed to go into the bent one will not slide easily. Best idea is to go to a junkyard and pick up a broken power antenna and juts take the mental antenna from it and retrofit, thats what i did. Alternatively you can remove the ball on the top and pull out the thinnest elemnt and try retrofitting it in your other manual antenna


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Last edited by pramodkumar : 9th August 2010 at 17:14.
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Old 13th August 2010, 11:27   #8
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OT.
I got my OHC fixed with a Taiwan made Power Antenna from JC Road Bangalore. It's been almost 2.5yrs, touch wood, it's working perfectly fine till date. Price was around 1,200Rs.
Pic attached
Repairing a power antenna-img_0754.jpg
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