OK, here are the pages out of the service bulletin, alerting dealerships of the replacement mast (sounds better than pole) and how to replace. As a bonus bit of SA Trivia, I also included a blurb which reveals that on January 27, 1979 and begining with S/N 540387, they made the change from the "always on" A/C fan switch, to having the seperate push button one. I know thats been keeping a lot of people up at nights, so I figured I'd put that one to bed....

Possuman, the FB replacement mast has a larger diameter aluminium tube then the SA one and won't fit in the base of the housing. Part of the design changes to the antenna assembly in 81.

 

Banzai Thank You for posting the information it's very helpful. Now I can tear out the antenna assembly and have at it.

 

I'm surprised to learn that 1/8" nylon line is hard to find. I've found trimmer line that is .105 and .155 but not .125. So I started looking for other nylon/plastic line and searched McMaster-Carr and found some 1/8" nylon rod. I sent them an e-mail to ask if it would be flexible enough to coil into a 3" to 4" coil and they said no, it isn't. But they recommended some plastic welding rod. I have no experience with this stuff. Can anyone tell me if it would be a suitable replacement? Would it stand up to being coiled up and uncoiled hundreds of times?

Thanks,
Rich

 

Rich,
so the .155 could not be made to work? Will it not fit in the mast or housing body? If it's just too big to fit in either of the crimp ends, couldn't you thin down the ends with a belt sander/grinding wheel or file? I remember speaking with a guy who welded plastic. He had a booth at some event I was at and I'm always interested in things like that. His filler rods were hard (solid) , like what you'd use for TiG welding. Also, not long enough. What you want would be more like a MiG process, on a spool. Not sure they even have that. I'm confident there is a way to accomplish this, just have to find the right material. Have you looked for a local plastics distributor? There used to be one around here I bought Lexan from. They also had various round and structural shaped nylon, teflon and plastic.

 

The antenna on my 80 LS wouldn’t go up or down however when I pressed the actuator switch I could hear the antenna actuator motor run and the ratchet in the drive clutch click.

So with the information provided by Banzai and 64mgh I decided to try and see if I could fix it. I removed the antenna and disassembled the unit and was surprised to see the drive cable was still in tact. After cleaning the unit and lubricating the mast segments I reassembled the unit. By turning the outer drive mechanism by hand I could get the antenna to go up and down which it didn’t do before cleaning. Before reinstalling the unit I decided to test it to make sure it worked properly. I plugged it in and pressed the up button and it worked. It extends to full length and then heard the clicks at the end of its travel and the hum of the motor. However when I press the down switch nothing happens, I don’t even hear the motor hum. So I’m thinking maybe a bad switch. Before I tear the center dash panel apart to get to the switch does anyone have any other thoughts on why the antenna will not retract?

 

The switch would be my first guess. Getting to it, is easier than getting to the antenna. I've had these (as well as others) go bad before and keep extra dash switches on hand, just in case. It's a simple to plug in another switch and try. I have also fixed bad switches by taking them apart to clean & bend the contacts. there are a few parts to them and they can fly apart if your not careful.

Surprised that it was just gummed up and the rod is ok. That's a plus. You didn't measure you rod did you? I'd like to know the length of one without disassembling a whole unit. I have a possibile replacement material but don't know how long to make it. I only have bits and pieces of an old broken mast rod.

 

I haven't put it back yet and it's still fully extended. From the top of the threaded segment for the nut of the fender mount of the pole assembly to the bottom of the button screwed to the upper most antenna segment is exactly 46 inches.

 

Continuing on with this saga, I pulled out the FSM and found out you can simply pull the antenna actuator switch out of the console fascia which makes it extremely easy to get at the switch. I checked the switch continuity and found no current reading for the down side of the switch. Ok so now I know part of the problem. I removed the two screws on the back of the switch and then removed the cover. Inside the switch are two rocker contacts that will touch fixed contact points on the switch plate back when depressed. They also fall right out of the mounting tabs when the cover is removed so if you disassemble the switch be careful not to loose them. Upon inspection I found a lot of “dirt” on three of the four contacts, other than that it looked to be OK. After cleaning the contacts I began to reassemble the switch. I dropped one of the rocker contacts and then one of the screws which of course fell through the switch opening. After removing the shift boot and 35 minutes of fiddling to retrieve the parts I finally got everything back together. It took longer to retrieve the parts than actually remove, clean and reinstall the switch. After reassembling the switch I checked the continuity and now had reading on both the up and down side of the switch. I plugged in the antenna assembly and cycled the switch. Everything worked!

So in summary I would suggest checking the switch continuity as well when you are experiencing problems with the antenna operation. In my case it may have been only a bad switch and not the antenna assembly itself. I hope this may help someone down the road.

 

Yea, just removing the shift **** and two screws gains you access to unplug and remove the switch completely in about 2 minutes. That's why I said it was easier to gain access to the switch than the actual antenna. The simplest thing is just to plug in and try another switch. From there you can decide to take the old one apart on the bench where your less apt to lose small parts. Work smarter not harder.

Normally, the antenna fails only when the rod gets brittle and breaks. You still hear the motor turning but have no more movement in the mast. When it does not move AND you hear no motor, it an electrical issue, most commonly found in the switch itself.

 

I still have an old mast that the cord kinked and broke years ago. Using 64Mgb's suggestion, I found some .130 dia trimmer cord to try as a replacement for the stock nylon suff. It turned out to be ribbed instead of plain round but looked to be the right combination of stiffness and flexability to work. I began with a 5ft piece which should be plenty long. It was actually about .160 across the ribs but this allowed me to trim down a half inch on one end to .130 for a snug fit where it crimped in the antenna's core rod. The pictures show the original cord, antenna parts and trimmer line.

After slipping on the rubber gasket, I inserted the line into antenna core securing it by restaking it with an automatic centerpunch. Next, you just slip the core rod back into the antenna and screw the **** tip back on. I don't currently have a broken antenna to test the final repair on, but it's well secured and I'm confident the trimmer line will work to push the mast up. You can possibilly find another material or additional means to secure it with, but this at least illustraites that it's possibile to fix these instead of buying a whole aftermarket antenna motor and mast.

 

Have you been able to actually run it on the car yet to see how it operates?
Also were did you get that trimmer cord?

 

Sorry...I missed these posts about the switch. Banzai is absolutely correct. I have fixed the switch in my '79 many times...so many times that each fix only lasts a few months now. The contacts eventually get smaller from arching, and the metal holding the contacts gets soft and no longer holds it's shape. I did buy a spare but it also failed after awhile. My plan is to install a 'hidden' replacement switch while leaving the original in the center panel to maintain the original look.

Rich

 

No, I don't currently have one that is broke. I do believe this will work. Here is a link to the line I bought:

http://lawn-and-garden.hardwarestore...0--616318.aspx

At $10, you get enough for several mast's. If you have one that is broke, PM me and I could fix one up and send it for you to install and try.

 

Yes mine is broken and I am interested in trying your solution.
I just have one question once the antenna is apart how do you get the new coil to catch on the reel?

http://www.mazdatrix.com/faq/86-92ant.htm

If you look at the 8th picture down, what is stopping the new coil from just coming loose?

 

A small section of the round container is cut out and folded in to crimp the end. You can sort of see it in the attached pictures.

Rich

 

Sorry...I didn't look at the MazdaTrix link before replying. That's a different antenna than the SA has.

Rich

 

No, that's exactly what I wanted to know.
I just used the mazdatrix link to help in my description to make things a little more clear because I didn't know how to describe it. lol

 

So I went to remove my antenna ad there is a random rubber hose attached to it. It was about 6 inches long or so but at the end it had a clean angle cut. What is it? and did I detach it to something or is it supposed to be like that?

 

It's a drain to drain water out of the mast.

Rich

 

I finally got around to working on this again. It looks great and works perfectly, except I hear a fair amount of gear noise when it's retracting. Going up it's nice and smooth and quiet. I don't remember it doing that before...is it normal?

Rich

 

I remember when mine moved up and down, when it was extending all you could hear was the motor turning to put the antenna up, but when it was going down it was much louder and noisier for some reason. I could never figure it out.

 

Its normal to have the louder clatter when reaching full extension or retraction, but excessive motor or gear noise in either direction of travel is not.

 

OK...Now that I'm ready to slide this bad boy back in, I need to know where the drain hose is routed. Mine had been cut off many years ago and I don't see or feel a hole for a small tube to go through. Anybody know?

Thanks,
Rich

 

When I was messing with mine, it was just routed down downwards in some aimless direction.
I didn't see anything for the hose to connect to either or even an opening for the water to escape.

 

I think he may be right. The aim was to drain the antenna mast, to Hell with your rear quarter!
Did you find a cause for the whine?