I added a switch to manually lower the antenna this evening. It's pretty simple to do. You just need a screwdriver, some wire strippers, and some connectors. How you add the switch into the circuit is up to you. I chose to use some wire taps from Radio Shack. Whatever method you use, the objective is to just add a switch to the wire that controls the antenna. When the switch is "open", no voltage gets to the antenna motor and the switch stays down. When the switch is "closed", the antenna behaves just like it would if there was no switch in the circuit.

The whole process took me about an hour, but a big chunk of that was fiddling with the camera. Another chunk of it was trying to find the right wire. If you watch the video you can see the exact wire that needs to be intercepted, so that will save you some time. Now that I know how to do it, I could probably install one on someone else's car in about 30 minutes.

YouTube - Jaguar XK8 Antenna Switch

 

But wait...we need some idiotproofing...the antenna should go back up automatically when you switch to AM/FM.

 

I'll allow you to figure that one out.

 

good vid Reverend!

 

Nice stuff , appreciate your videos

 

Now we need instructions on how to put in a switch to flip on the back up lights so that we discourage those idiots that tend to follow us way too close at night.

 

Great idea and video....BYT whats the bird on your car for?

 

Just turn on the rear fog lights. Voilà, problem solved

 

That's a picture of Sam and the bird crossing the finish line after a race.

Sam won by a nose.

 

Oops wrong thread...

 

Rev, it seems you have spliced into a different wire than I did. I followed Paul Pavlik's procedure and it was using the green/black wire on the white connector. Is this two different ways to do this or are newer cars different than the older cars? Confusing me now!!

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...antenna-24564/

 

That's odd. First of all, I had forgotten all about Paul's thread. I probably should have just put the video in the existing thread. Perhaps one of the mods can just merge the threads.

Second, I just read the electrical guide and spliced into the wire that it shows is used to trigger the antenna. In post #17 of that thread h20boy posts the wiring diagram. The very next page of the electrical guide, which isn't shown in h20boy's posts, is this:



It shows that the RH1 connector is gray and located in the rear of the center console. So, I found the only gray connector in the center console, looked for wire #7. The wire on pin 7 was the right color. It's actually the same color as the one in Paul's thread. I guess earlier MY cars used a different connector.

 

I took that picture last summer on vacation out in Utah. It was just a lucky shot. A raven happened to be flying between me and the car at the exact moment I took the picture.

 

Ah! I see the difference! Apparently the wire runs through two connectors under the armrest. He tapped into the wire just before the IC2 connector. I tapped into it between the IC2 connector and the RH1 connector. It's the same wire, we just intercepted it at two different points.

 

Whew! At least we are not having to figure out a MY car for the conversion.

 

Thumbs up Sam, good work
Thanks
Doug
2001 XKR Silverstone

 

See my post here:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/j...92/#post387801

 

Gents - my 99 MY without the phone is different from the video! The connector Reverend Sam uses is not used in my car. FWIW I do not have the phone or a Nav system.

Anyone have more info?

I'm digging through the info I've got right now. Unfortunately I don't have access to JTIS as wifey went out of town to visit the grandkids and took our only computer running Windows XP.

 

Thank you so much - I'm heading back to the garage now. There are two white connectors but I'm hoping only one of the pin 14s will have the LGB wire.

 

According to the document I have in your car it is pin 14 on a 14-pin white connector under the console, either green and black or light green and black.