Aerial operation buggered!

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n0bby

New Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2005
Messages
5
Location
The sunny Isle of Wight
Car
1988 230TE
I was well chuffed today when I installed a new Clarion CD/Receiver in the 230, and was able to hear the reassuring voices of the 'Today' presenters in my new car for the very first time. It was a breeze to do, and everything worked fine straight off. And so I'd finished the installation, and popped the car back in the garage (remembering to turn the radio off first, so as not to damage the electrically extending/retracting aerial) before breakfast!

But my high spirits were short-lived. This evening, having been instructed to pop out on an off-licence run, I jumped in the car and without thinking twice, turned the radio on. Too late I realised my error - and in the wing mirror watched as the aerial extended up, and straight into the underside of the overhanging cupboards on the garage wall. Argh! The motor whirred - but the aerial was no longer going nowhere.

And that's how it stayed. Once I got out of the garage I found that upon turning the radio on or off, I get a motor whirr, but no more than one aerial segment or less slides back into the housing. The aerial isn't damaged - it wasn't bent and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it physically - but it won't retract, and it won't be forced back in.

Can anyone help..?
 
they are a relatively easy thing to fix - but you need to take it out the car.

At the bottom of the motor unit you'll find a big spool with a serrated platic strip in it which is used to extend the aerial - my guess is that you've just knocked the teeth of the belt off the gear.

It's all very logical once you've talken the aerial unit out of the car


and then if you are "lucky" like me.....just after you have repaired it, it's working absolutely smoothly and perfectly for the first time in months (since the kids leant on it) a seagull will use your aerial to commit suicide as you are doing 70 mph on a dual carraiageway - that time both the aerial and the seagull were beyond repair :)

Andy
 

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