Power Antenna Replacement

[AFB24911S]

Well, I'm getting picky. The old power antenna on my car doesn't work, and it wiggles a lot on the freeway so I'm going to try to repair or replace it.

I started looking into it, though, and it seems like getting to mine will be a royal pain. See photos.





It's in front of a piece of sheet metal the door hangs on to, so even if I removed the door that wouldn't create enough space. So, the front fender has to come off. So would the front bumper.

Am I missing anything? Does anyone know about repairing these old Hirschmann antennas?

[tsuter]

Getting that out will be a big challenge for very small hands and yes many people remove the door and loosen fender bolts to get more room. Then their door never hangs right again....
But if it was me....
I would run the thing all the way down and leave it where it is.
Then unhook the antenna cable at the radio and put in a new nicely hidden windshield antenna or other...

[aoncurly]

Those of us are unlucky enough to have their SCs with the antenna mounted on the driver's fender have to deal with this issue. I've seen a thread on here where someone taped their door skin and managed to remove the old antenna through the narrow space without removing the door or fender for a manual antenna. Not sure if this will work for a motorized antenna. I asked a shop to replace my manual antenna. One thing is they had to find a used replacement antenna and could not use a Hirschman antenna I had purchased for some reason. And they were very secretive about how they did it.

[DonNewton]

After replacing the power antenna on my 83 (numerous times), I finally gave up and had it replaced with a manual antenna. Couple of reasons: Got too old to try to learn new curse words and my local shop was "glad" to replace it for me. Like it much better.

[EC900]

My thoughts on the antenna;
Is it still operational or stuck, if so is only one section stuck?
Does it wobble at base or upper sections, which could be the internal glide are gone or slipped from the bottom of each or a particular section.

I managed to free up my Manual antenna as two of the three sections were stuck from non-use.
Use a penetrating oil and very slight pressure cleaned an re-oiled with very lightweight bike chain oil. Maintenance and cleaning is essential, ans oil attracts road dirt, getting to clean a power antenna before it retracts is overlooked.

The way these antenna sections work is there’s a thin piece of brass glides in between the sections. If this breaks the sections won’t hold, if they’re dirty they seize up. Pulling up too forceful will yank them completely out and then it’s not repairable. Slow and steady tapping up and down works but over time.

I had an electric on my 328 daily driver, it would freeze in winter and really seemed to strain the motor trying to raise. I eventually soaked it with WD40 to dispel water/moisture and added a grommet to help seal the top nib. Seasonally cleaning and WD-ing and problem solved.

[bkreigsr]

My euro delivery '76 has the antenna on the driver's side.
I removed the door.

I did not have a problem refitting.

I bought the special tool to pound out the pins but that didn't work.
I ended up unbolting the hinge assemblies from the jamb.
Scribe the outline of the hinges lightly into the jamb before removal, and replace any spacers to their original locations.

[ed mayo]

Usually a power antenna was mounted on the right fender for space reasons. I have never seen one on the left fender. Removing hinge pins is the safest way. A Porsche body shop should have the tool.

[AFB24911S]

Good ideas, thanks for the input.

@EC900: totally stuck since I bought it 4 years ago, but could be worth trying to loosen it with oil. Will try and get back to you before removing door, if I could just force it down and install another antenna somewhere else.

I took another look, and it may just fit to pull the old antenna out if I give myself carpel tunnel trying, but the new one almost certainly won't fit back in.

@aoncurly, I get why your shop didn't want to use the new Hirschmann antenna, I took mine out of the box and I don't love it. It's got cheapo mounts that may not fit the fender very nicely.

More to come, I've got some days between gigs so I'll probably spend some time on this now.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by ed mayo

Usually a power antenna was mounted on the right fender for space reasons. I have never seen one on the left fender. Removing hinge pins is the safest way. A Porsche body shop should have the tool.

I do seem to recall a thread here long ago mentioning that different antenna types were mounted on different sides. Oddly, I have a manual fitted to the passenger side, so maybe that was replaced at one time...

The PO, when handing the car over, specifically mentioned that he had checked and made absolutely certain the key was there for the manual antenna. It has yet to turn up, many years later, LOL.

I rarely listen to the radio - but it seems to work just fine with the antenna down...

[aoncurly]

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/338780-radio-antenna-replacement.html

This was thread I referred to....I don't think your power antenna will fit in the space. I have no idea how my shop did it - I can tell that the door hinge pins and bolts were not touched. They charged 1.5 hours labor plus the antenna for a total of about $250. To me it seems worth the aggravation of trying to do this yourself. Good luck.