CruxGNZ Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 The power antenna on my '73 broke a couple of years ago, so I replaced it with one of those cheap $5 manual ones, which I hated to do but I wanted to hear tunes once in a while. I would have to keep it extended at all times, because it would rattle if it was retracted . Well, when I was coming back from the Buick Nationals I visited Lewis Maudlin to pick up my glass fenders and headlight buckets. While I was there he threw in a power antenna unit that he didn't know if it worked or not. Today I got the itch to play with something that would exercise my mind a little, so I took my old power antenna unit and the one Lewis gave me and sat down to pull them apart. Took the better pieces of the two and made one good one. Cleaned and lubed the sucker up with white lithium grease and tested it... holy crap does that thing move! Never saw a power antenna move up and down as fast as this one. Not kidding you, it takes about two seconds for it to fully extend and just a hair over a second for it to retract. If you need something to do and your power antenna is too damn slow, don't look at buying a new $75 power antenna, just take apart your old one, clean it up (don't forget the crap that builds up on the motor), lube it, reassemble and enjoy the new life you gave to your power antenna. Both antenna's had a lot of rust and crap inside of them, I can only imagine what others must look like inside them. If you do this, make sure you get a new cotter pin for the antenna rod or do like I did and get a thicker cotter pin and drill out the hole on the antenna rod to accept it and you won't have the thing snapping off on ya leaving the antenna lifeless. Yeah, so I was a little bored today, but it's the little things, you know? !M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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