My antenna got bent....and then literally fell off....only held by the geared cable. I removed it, and threw it out. I just ordered a new mast....with cable. Can I install it myself? Can someone explain how?
thanks for taking the time....

 

Yeah, do it yourself. Remove the cover that covers the battery area (I'm fairly sure this part needs to be removed in order to remove the right hand side cover.

Remove the cover on the right hand side of the "trunk". You should be able to now see the antenna motor.

Remove the elect plug off the motor.

The motor is held in place with two 10 mm wrench size nuts and these two fasteners are accessed from outside of the trunk. Lay under the right rear of the car and with a flashlight and your fingers locate those two fasteners. Just figure out the area they are located by looking at where the motor is in the trunk.

The second jpg attached is looking at the motor from inside the car looking outbd. The arrows show three places where you disconnect several part for removal of the motor if needed.

Two fasteners removed then go back into the trunk area and manuver the motor out. Of the trunk. You will have to remove a bonding strap from the motor before doing that. Held with one screw/bolt.

At the base of the antenna you will see a painted rubber grommet that seals the antenna mast from water intrusion. Be careful with this grommet. IF it comes out of its hole, then with patience put it back in place. You use patience so you don't destroy the paint on it.

Anyway, with the motor out of the car, pull the rest of the mast out of the motor if it's not already out. Then grab you new mast and prior to feeding it into the metal hole on the motor, try to gently make the first six inches of that "track" as straight as you can. If you don't do that, then the "track" will have a curve in it and when you insert it into the motor shaft it will hit a boss on the bottom of that hole and won't travel any further than that boss.

Note: prior to feeding that first few inches of the mast into the motors hole........turn the "key" to on only and the radio to on so the motor will travel to it's full up position. Now once you have fed that first few inches of the new mast into the motor it will bottom out as it hits the mechanism that pulls the "rope" into the motor.

Now hold that "rope* in the hole and have someone turn the key to OFF. After about ten-fifteen seconds the motor will start retracting the "rope*, and you let it pull the rope til the motor stops running.

Now install the motor with mast into place. You have to angle the motor/mast a bit for it to go thru the hole in the body to do this. Once in place bolt the Motor and bonding strap back like it was before.

You will probably have to remove the two halves of the motor to see the area that your going to feed the 'rope' into and the boss I talk about.

When you feed the 'rope" you feed it into the motor so the teeth on the rope are facing forward IF memory serves. Forward as in looking forward in the car.

I might have done more harm than good writing this. Hope not. I have done this job a few months ago and the only bad thing that happened was I ran the battery down so low the car would not start and all sorts of warning lights came on due to that.

I have downloaded the factory manual prior to doing this BUT this replacing the mast is a common thing done on all sorts of cars and the procedure is mostly the same.

In other words.........if I can do it, anybody can do it.

That cover for the battery area has a couple of knob fasteners to undo. The black felt cover on the right hand side with the 'vent" on the rear of it has one fastener on the top of it.

 

www.AntennaMastsRus.com

Try looking at the link above for a general idea of how to. And or google using terms like HOW TO REMOVE A POWER ANTENNA MAST, or the like.

It's possible that you won't have to remove the motor if you get all the old toothed link out. If you get all the old mast out then you might be able to feed the new mast into the motor from the outside and have the motor pull the full length of the mast into the motor.

And or read this link http://www.mazdatrix.com/faq/86-92ant.htm which gives you a pretty good idea and pictures of what to do.

The biggest problem I had was that I could not feed the geared piece of the mast far enough down into the motor for it to engage the parts that grab the toothed 'rope'. This was due to the internal 'boss" inside the motors tube that I mentioned in another post above. That required me to take the motor apart to see why the toothed 'rope' did not engage. It did not engage because the toothed 'rop' had a curve in it that made it bottom out on the internal boss. So I hand straighted the toothed rope for the first six inches or so, so it would get past that darn boss and go further inside the motor so it would engage the driving device.

 

Follow his write up. It's not that hard to replace. I've replaced mine twice now because I forgot to cut the radio off before going in the garage.

 

Wow, thanks for that detail on how to do it...i was hoping I could just feed it in without taking out the motor....but it sounds like I will have to be more brave. Again, thanks for taking the time to explain it....

 

You might try it without pulling the mtr out, IF your sure that all the old mast track is out. Just compare your old mast length to the new one and if the same length, then you more or less know all the mast track is out.

Then you might try turning the key and radio ON and leaving it ON........then position the mast track down the antenna tube and have someone turn the key OFF and wait approx 15 seconds and the motor should start rewinding the mast track.

I did this by myself and would go turn the key off.......rush to the back and hold the mast track down in the antenna tube and wait for about 15 seconds for the motor to start rewinding the mast track.

In my case I had the motor out and laying in the trunk area while feeding the mast/cable/track/whatever its terminology is.

Memory says there's a short metal tube that the mast cable need to be fed thru prior to offering it up to motors tube. That short tube can't be installed later. Ask me how I know this.

That short metal tube is called a "locating tube" in the Mazdatrix article I attached earlier.

 

The remaining part of my chrome mast on my 2006 XK will not come out. Do I need to slacken or loosen a nut anywhere to get this out?

Thanks,
Alan