Hi, I have a jaguar xk8 and the aerial will only go down about half way. It looks like it has a little 'kink' in it of which it will not pass. I have tried 'persuading' it but with no joy.
I have read in a formum on this site that you can simply take off the nut on the exterior of the car that keeps

the aerial in place and then pull the aerial out. This has not worked. More than likely use it ever

I have next to no technical knowledge so please be gentle

Any suggestions/directions would be greatly appreciated

Additionally, I have just purchased the car (xk8 2000) and would like to get it to concourse level. I live in Market Harbourough so if anyone is near to offer me any input that would be great as I know very little.

 

Spray the antenna shaft with WD40 and work the antenna with turning the radio off/on. Be sure to give it time to go up and down. After a few operations clean the antenna when extended and spray it again and see if it gets better.

 

If you have no technical knowledge then you are in for some very big garage bills. Your car has bad rust in the sills and rear wings, probably about £1000 minimum for the repairs.

If you have rust in these areas you will have it in lots of other places too, rear chassis and front chassis under the subframe and front floors, there is at least another £1500. Also check your seatbelt anchors, another £500 to do it properly as the interior needs to come out.

Your Ariel is the least of your problems, if the WD40 doesn't fix it to fix it, it will be better to snap it off above the bottom segment then grip will mole grips and hammer it out after removing the toothed inner part. Replacements from Ebay are cheap.

Are you serious about getting it concourse?

 

You need 2 people to remove the mast. One in the car to turn on/ off the radio. One at the mast after the retaining nut has been removed. Now with the car on turn the radio on allow it to fully extend then quickly grab the mast and continue to pull it up. It should fully disengage from the motor. Take note of which way the notches on the nylon line face. Normally they face forward. Take the new replacement mast and and insert the nylon cord into the hole. Now have the friend turn off the radio while you hold downward pressure on the mast. The antenna motor should grab the nylon cord and pull itself into the motor. Now slip on the retaining nut and screw it onto the mast loosely. Now turn the radio back on and allow the mast to fully extend then tighten the nut. Now turn the radio off. The mast should fully retract. If not, there's a piece of that old nylon cord remaining within the ant. motor. That requires motor disassembly which I would have someone familiar do. Good luck! I used to change these on the dealership service drive on Mercedes. 90% of the time they fully retracted. The bent mast happens usually because they are never cleaned nor lubed when you wash the car.

 

See if this helps.

Link. http://www.jagrepair.com/images/AutoRepairPhotos/Antenna%20mast%20install-1.pdf

Gus
www.jagrepair.com

 

Ha KK fullstop 8

Weard place for rust that one .

 

Doesn't look like rust there, it looks like someone tried to open the trunk lock with a large screwdriver instead of a key.

 

Oh I see ! Nasty ,
That's going to be some work to get this car concourse.
Good luck with the restoration.

 

Didn't the chrome bezel taillights and modified fogs come in 2001 not 2000?

 

Thank you for all of your input ( apart from the chap who has told me that I have about £2000 worth of bodywork to do). Have tried wd40 and pulling aerial when extending but to no avail.
If there are any other suggestions I am very open to hearing them.
Also, can anyone advise me what to do with the boot lock that has been drilled/ripped out.

 

Geezee,

The car is beautiful, but it looks like some corners may have been cut in the past. The paint looks like a recent respray. If it was a recent respray, the rust showing is 15 years in the making, so that means the rust was just bondo'd over and that rust is coming back through the panels.

Bubbled paint like that means the panel is gone and the rust is completely through from the back side.

The chap with the £2000 bodywork estimate is speaking from experience with his car. his rust repairs are all documented on this website. The obvious flaws are one thing. XK8's have areas where hidden rust can do a lot more damage.

Its a beautiful car and its worth fixing, but it needs to be fixed right and the earlier it is fixed, the less the cancer will spread.

 

Thank you for your comments. In trying to sort the aerial I have ran the battery down. (Yes I know I am a muppet) Obviously I cannot use the key fob to open the boot and the boot lock is not present. Does anyone have any ideas how I can get into the boot

Cheers

 

Open the door and raise the Bonnet. Attach a Battery charger and/or Jumper Cable to the underbonnet terminals. Press the Dash Boot Release Button.

 

The guy who told you that you have big rust problems already told you how to get the ariel out. Re read the post.

 

Sorted. Thank you.
Re the aerial, I have followed the instructions but I cannot pull it out

 

You clearly did not follow my instructions.

 

Hi, race diagnostics. I did not snap it off as I tried the other recommendations first. I will follow your advice this week.

I am serious about getting it to concourse standard. It seems like a lot of work and more importantly, money.

Thank you so much for your input.

Getting it serviced tomorrow and will get rust checked out.

 

I could not get my Ariel mast off either, I had to take the whole unit out and put it in a vice, clamp mast and hit the clamp with a hammer till the mast came out, took about four hits.

 

Did you look at the instructions on my other post #5?

 

Hi all, I have been to the body shop today. He reckons around £600 will cover the chopping out (rust), welding and respraying.
Whilst he is at it I am going to get him to cut off the aerial, weld a plate in and spray it. I have decided that I would like to have an internal aerial in order to get rid of the current one.
I just wanted to get input as to the boot lock. As you can see in the photo it has been drilled out. You can put a screwdriver into it to open the boot. Can I get a new lock which will work with my current key. I would like to have a go myself but as stated before I do not know much about cars.
Additionally, there is corrosion around some of the aluminium window surrounds. The paint sprayer said he can pop them off and respray them. However, I wondered if it would be cheaper to get replacements.

One last thing, the battery drained as a result of my own muppetry. The radio is now demanding a code that is not in the log book. Any ideas?

Thank you in advance, Zack