Yeah, that's about the short and skinny of it. The "rope" came off (or out) the drum inside the rear of my car and the goddamn antenna fell out. Now there are two good points to this:

1) I didn't lose the antenna, it did some pavment surfing for a mile or so before I figured out what that scraping noice was but it never fully dropped out.

2) Radio reception is unchanged.


I plan on having a whole new antenna installed when I upgrade my stereo after the new year but in the mean time I have to listen to the antenna motor wind around for a few minutes on start up and shut down. It shuts off automatically after a bit but it just seems like some unnessisary wear and tear on an otherwise functional unit.

So my question is, is there a way to disconnect this motor without tearing apart the *** end of my car and/or cutting wires that would have to be replaced or spliced back later?

 

Yes, you can pull the interior panel off and unplug the motor. There might also be a fuse somewhere. I just unplugged mine.

Here's one place to get A NEW MAST

I believe the plastic teeth on the mast eventually wear out.

 

My dad had to replace my antenna when he owned it back in like '98, it was an expensice pain in the ***.

 

I installed a switch right next to the clock that controls my antenna.. I'll take a pic sometime if I can remember. I like having my antenna bc where I go to school is in the boonies an I can't pick up radio without it up, but when i'm listening to cd's i want it down, bc the antenna looks retarded up.... Wasn't hard, just cut the wires, put them onto the switch... wham bam, looks good. The switch has a red LED that matches everything else (Security LED is red, car is red, cd player face lights up red) so it looks pretty good. Just dremmeled a spot out.

 

Ok, this is most likely the route I'll look into. It will be a few months before I start looking into a new sound system so unplugging the motor seems the most reasonable. I'm not big on doing my own work as I am limited on time, resources, tools and space. Lets face it, a shared 2 car garage attached to a condo isn't the ideal work space for anything more involved than washing your windows......but I think I can manage to open up rear inside panels and unplug the motor.

We will see

 

Or you could open the interior panels in the front, and unplug it from the stock stereo, which would be easier, and takes 30 seconds.

 

check out this option as well.
http://twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg.asp...&msg_id=873648

 

That's true huh? The single antenna cable in the back of hte head unit controls the power and everything. Or am I thinking of something else? Hmmm...either way I've actually had the stereo out once before so I know how to do that