The radio antenna on my 1990 Jaguar XJ6 (XJ40) will not retract all the way into the fender, but shows about 5 inches when the radio is turned off. In addition, the head of the threaded shaft is broken off. So, I went to my local Jaguar Parts and Service place here in Tulsa, and bought a new antenna. Back at the garage, I managed to get the old one out, but there is about 5 inches of the white plastic lead that is missing. It could still be in the antenna motor and that's why the antenna doesn't retract all the way, or maybe it was broken off before it was installed and there is nothing in the antenna motor. Is there any way to tell, or do I just install the new antenna and hope for the best?

 

I assume you bought a mast with toothed plastic, and the plastic on the new one is longer than the one you removed from you antenna motor, What you will have to do is either power the unit with no antenna in it and you might get lucky and the broken part will come out (have the antenna tube facing down so the piece can fall out) or you can take the antenna motor apart and remove the broken piece( be careful when doing this take pictures as you go along ). I hope this helps you out

 

That's correct, Lumppy47.

I bought the mast with the toothed plastic line. I will attempt to do as you stated and turn it upside down and power the motor. It will have to wait until next week because my wife and I are celebrating our 34th today. And besides, I need to figure out how to remove the panel in the trunk so I can get to the antenna motor.

Thanks again.

 

the panel comes out easily, there might br some small phillips hesd screws holding it in place. then examine unit before taking it out as there is a ground strap on the pipe near the top.

 

Okay. I removed the side panel and accessed the antenna motor. Then I attempted to get any pieces that might be still in the motor out by turning it upside down and turning the radio on and off. Nothing came out, so I removed the antenna and took the cover off. There are no pieces of the old antenna in the motor, so I put it all back together and attempted to install the new antenna mast. I inserted the plastic toothed strip into the rod as told in the instructions, but it wouldn't go. The opening on the motor seems to be too small to accept the toothed strip and it takes a lot of force to get it in. Any ideas?

 

All is well. After sending that last reply, I went back out to the car and removed the antenna motor, took off the cover, and inserted the plastic toothed strip into the antenna mast tube. By visually observing the process, I was able to see where I was having difficulty and when I put everything back together and retried the installation of the mast, it all went together like a charm.

Thanks for the suggestions, Lumppy47. And I did take pictures and they did help!

 

Good outcome, nice one.

So, if you have pics, when you have a little time why not post them up with a little explanation.

Always on the lookout.

 

As I said, the installation didn't go especially smoothly. I experienced difficulty in getting the gears on the motor to accept the plastic toothed strip from the new antenna mast. The attached pictures show some of the work involved.

The first step was to remove the spare tire and the jack. With the jack removed, it was a simple task to remove the rear panel. By the way, that is not the original rear panel. The original was water damaged, so I used it as a pattern and cut a new one out of luan plywood. With the rear panel removed, I removed the carpet on the floor of the trunk (boot?), then the plastic cover over the tail light. Next, I removed the side panel, using care not to bend or tear it. With the antenna motor exposed, I disconnected the antenna motor electrical connector, and the drain hose from the plastic drain at the bottom of the antenna motor. I removed the nut securing the ground strap at the top of the antenna motor tube, then unscrewed the antenna cable from the antenna motor tube. Finally, I removed the screw and washer securing the antenna motor mount bracket to the car body and removed the antenna motor. Once the antenna motor was removed, it was easy to remove the cover and look inside to see what the problem was. Assembly and installation was the reverse of the removal/disassembly.
Once I overcame my initial apprehension at doing the unknown, I really enjoyed it.

Apparently, I did something wrong. The pictures didn't attach and I'm not familiar with how to make them URL compliant, if that's even possible.

 

And that is what it is all about.

Well done

 

Thank you, sir.

And now, on to the next task. A non-functioning electric rear window. More to come.

 

What does a replacement antenna cost? Mine also just started not going all the way down when the car is turned off.

 

Mine only required the antenna mast as some of the teeth were broken. That cost $19.99. Of course, to replace the whole assembly would cost substantially more.

 

I saved a couple of bucks getting an antenna off Ebay. Evidently they used the electric antenna unit in our cars in a whole bunch of other cars.

 

Kirk511,

Do you know which car models and years that would be? Can you post them?

 

My antenna I found stays up. The motor assembly appears not to be mounted properly to the wing since the antenna "sloshes" a bit in the through hole and it's not the rubber grommet at fault. It's probably the reason my boot leaks when it rains.

I needed to pull the antenna so I could put a waterproof cover over my Cat for the winter.

I had to

1. unscrew the mast with a wrench and tug on it a bit to make it bend at the joint w/o breaking the reception wire
2. disconnect the motor mount assembly from inside the boot and
3. pull everything into the boot, finally removing the entire electric aerial.

Here is a page from Haynes that describes their procedure, Electric aerial - removal and refitting.

http://h1.ripway.com/webpilot/jaguarforums/pg170.pdf

th_JaguarXJ6HaynesRepairManual1988thru1994.jpg?t=1301949138

 

Thanks for the link, I will check out FAQs , if this is not already there I will add this link to our FAQ pages

 

My 91 XJ40 was doing the same thing. I got the mast replaced at the Jaguar service place for $57. Yes, I know I probably could have had it fixed for less.

 

Hey Guys. Just got back from a week at a conference and had to replace the antenna on the cat. Due to this forum post and many others on antenna replacement I was able to do it without to much trouble. So just wanted to say, "Thank You!"