Power antenna repair - RIP?

[scot850]

I don't know how to upload a video mp4 file to here. However, good news! The antenna mask is alive again and fully functional!

Runs nice and smooth so I am happy! It was definitely worth the effort and many thanks to those with advice on this!

I showed the antenna working to my son, and he as a 27 year old, was actually amazed at the 'old tech' and found it fascinating. So it is not just old guys!

One thing that does confuse me a little.

The constant main power line (Red/Green) obviously supplies the power for operation.

Ground (Black) is ground

Remaining wire is solid Red. Now I thought that when powered it would raise the mast, and switched off it would lower. This is wrong as I have power on and it retracts, power off it raises. That does not make sense as when you switch the ignition switch off or radio, I would expect the signal to lower the mast??

Am I typically confused on this??

Neil.

[BEJinFbk]

Sounds like something electrical
or possibly mechanical is reversed.

[scot850]

The internal wiring is soldered so I don't believe there is an issue there. The wiring to the connector goes through it's small booster?/control box to the 3 outlets.

It might be how I have it connected to a power supply. I have 2 manual switches. I power up the Green/red wire first and then switch the red wire on and it works the reverse to how I expect. Unless the head unit does something different. I have just ordered a cheap AM/FM antenna signal cable extender as the original is not even 12" long. Fine if you have it in the car but otherwise not! Hopefully it will be here on the weekend and then I can try again using the head unit to control it and see what happens then. The head unit has 2 constant live wires to it so maybe it is how it works internally. I'll update once I try that!

Neil.

[scot850]

So today I went and picked up 2 power antennas from Canadian Tire on Clearance. Price? $8 CDN each!! Sure they had been opened but one had fulley intack sealed plastic bags while the other had a mounting bracket missing and one small washer.

What immediately surprised me was the similarity to the Volvo OE mast! See below:

Aftermarket and Volvo power antennas

PXL_20230224_232541383.jpg (370.88 KiB) Viewed 421 times

The body shapes and mounting points are nearly identical!! The main differences are the control unit is a smaller black package attached to the mast compared to the Volvo item and the mast lengths are different with the OE one being longer but the aftermarket mast has 5 sections to the OE of 3.

There are a couple of small molding differences but otherwise the construction is identical for the most part. The normal price from a Volvo supplier is in the $200 US range or more. The aftermarket one was originally priced at Canadian Tire for $90 Canadian, but like I said I paid $8!!

The mounting points even look to be compatible to allow use for the original Volvo lower bracket.

There are the 3 wires as per the OE version of the Power wire, the ground wire and the signal wire.

The strangest thing of the purchase is I bought the 2 remaining masts which have identical manufacturer part numbers and SKU ##'s, but they are not the same. The 2nd unit has no little black box attached to the shaft, the molding is slightly different to the other one but mouning parts were the same?!

Same part numbers different form

PXL_20230224_233005154.jpg (482.43 KiB) Viewed 421 times

Same part numbers

PXL_20230224_233024815.jpg (427.6 KiB) Viewed 421 times

Weird!!

I wonder if one in a newer variant that does not require the control box to work? It also has the 3 wire connections.

I am now waiting for an extender cable for the antenna AM/FM cable so I can use it in my test rig. That should arrive tomorrow and then I can test all 3 units and connect to a radio. Just have to work on the speaker box which is now mostly cut and ready to be assembled.

Neil.

[BEJinFbk]

Great Buy!
Looking forward to pics
of the completed project.