My antenna on my 1985 XJ6 won't rise any more. I looked at the relay and motor in the trunk and my motor wires are blue and green - unlike the wiring schematic I use. There is 12 volts at the blue wire with igniton off and there is 12 volts at the green with the radio turned on.
Also, looking through the tail light lens I see there is other wire going directly to the top of the mast that runs forward in the trunk. I imagine this is for the signal to stop rising or falling. (?)
Do I have the wrong schematic or has a previous owner changed something?
Haven't checked the fuse under the dash but my interior lights work.
Any help greatly appreciated.

 

there should be 5 wires connected to the green antenna relay.

if it is the original antenna, the motor is probably burned assuming everything else is good. .

 

I took my antenna apart two months or so ago. As I understand it there's a lot of reasons for your symptoms so it could be a lot of things. There is a switch inside the motor that controls the up and down stop.

I'm looking at the diagram Fig 15.1 and power from Battery wire should be purple and the switched power should be White with Pink Tracer. The Switch to turn it up or down should be Blue with White Tracer for up and Blue with Red Tracer for down. You should be able to bypass the relay and touch the purple to the Blue/White or Blue/Red and make the antenna go up or down. The switch to activate the up and down is inside the motor. It is white with copper contacts and springs. I have some pictures of it in a thread I posted a while back. I had a problem where my antenna would keep running and it was the result of the ceramic/plastic of that switch being burned up. I was able to take the motor out, clean up the burned up part with an xacto knife and I was back in business. I have a bunch of pictures of the inside of that motor if you need them.

 

muttony why don't you document the antenna repair in a separate thread?

mine did the same thing and I ended buying another one. I still have the original 1983 antenna which might be repairable. I tried to dismantle it but didn't get far.

 

I did document it in a separate Thread called "Repair of Power Antenna that ...." Can't remember full name of the thread but those are the first four words. The forum search tool should do the rest.

 

Thanks, Muttony. I found your other thread and will investigate further. I may be on my second motor already as my motor wire colors are solid blue and green.
So what is the wire that goes to the top of the mast itself and runs forward in the trunk?

 

I don't recall a wire that goes to the top of the mast. You mean inside the mast itself or that it goes to the top of the mast housing but still in the fender? There is the actual antenna wire that runs to the radio. It'd be relatively thick gauge and maybe grey. That's the only wire that ought to be attached to the mast itself. The MAst shouldn't have any power. It goes up and down by means of a plastic wire that winds up in the motor in a trunk. Literally thing of what would happen if you took a weed whacker line and pushed and pulled it through a straw. That's how the antenna works. So there may have been a ground and there was definitely the actual aerial cable (I mean the one that goes from the antenna plug in the back of the radio and plugs into the aerial), but I don't remember there being any wires there.

You may be right on the second antenna with the wrong colored wires. But makes no difference really as you know which is which. When you say that one is green and one is blue, what wires are you referring to?The power from the battery has to be Purple and the switched power has to be white with pink tracer. If one replaced the antenna why change the car's built in power supplies? I don't think you would, I think the wires you are referring to must be the ones from with Motor itself to the relay. Look for the relay (IIRC it is olive green) just under the particle board deck to the left of the motor. There has to be Purple and White/Pink there. The relay should have 5 wires, Purple, White/Pink, Black for ground, and then the ones leading to the motor which ought to be blue with the tracers mentioned above. To test, remove the purple from the relay and then the green or blue one and touch the purple to the green or blue (do it in turn). That should cause the antenna motor to come on. If it doesn't there's something wrong in the motor, because you'd have bypassed the relay.

But I wouldn't give up on your antenna at all. I think I was able to fix mine in an afternoon. Electric motors are resilient, hard to wreck. Chances are that there is a component in that motor that you may be able to fix. Digi-key could probably provide a motor that would fit.

BTW where are you in MA?

 

yeahh, that is the grey coax cable that connects to the back of the radio.

 

Doh! Yeah, it goes to the radio.
I must have a replacement motor with the blue and green wires. Also it looks a bit different than the one in your other thread. And I'm sure it's fried or otherwise busted.
I'm in Medway, Massachusetts.

 

coax cable to radio

 

Right, thanks Jose. Obviously I hadn't thought this out much.
I can get a used motor for $60 but I'm considering a generic replacement available for @$36. Many on Ebay with the motor and spool all in one unit attached to the mast.

 

I would really encourage you to try to fix what you have. The innards are not that tough to work with and you may find that a good cleaning and attention to the contact points will fix it. You'll spend as much time trying to fiddle that generic replacement into place as figuring out why the current one doesn't work. I'd repeat, I think it very unlikely that the electric motor itself is bad. It is probably something inside the shell that is fouled up.

 

Alright, thank you. I'll give it a shot and report back. Always try to avoid spending money needlessly not to mention create more landfill.