how can i test a power antenna at the junk yard? what wires on the unit would i have to jump to test it?

I did this a few times and I don't remember if there are two wires or three. But either way, two of the wires get 12v and if there's a third it goes to ground. IIRC the case is grounded to the chassis so you just ground the case of the unit and put 12v to both wires.

sirtokesalot,

 

I had to fix the power antenna on my first OBW years ago (a 97), and it was fairly easy as I recall.

 

The problem with mine was the mast whip (the gear toothed nylon whip that pushed the mast up and pulled it down) was snapped inside the motor and gear case.

 

At that time I simply pulled the entire unit out of the car and removed the mast and took the gear case apart. The motor was fine, it still ran both directions, but with a broken whip there was no movement of the mast.

 

I opened the gear case up and removed the broken whip sections inside, and regreased the gear section. Now this was 20 years ago and car antennas have changed a lot since then, but power whip antennas on many cars were pretty much the same. I found another Japanese car in the junkyard with a power antenna and removed it.( Many of the Japanese manufacturers all used the same antenna supplier, so a lot of the parts are the same.)

 

I simply removed the mast/whip assembly from that antenna and installed it in the subie gear box. A few test runs proved to be the fix. Since the gear box drive has a slip clutch assembly built into it, I lined the geared whip teeth up with the drive gear of the case and fed the new mast whip in by hand. Once fastened down I was able to test the unit from the car's wiring harness.

 

One thing to consider if you can find another such power antenna setup, be sure the base section of the mast assembly is the same diameter as the base section of the subie. It won't matter how long the mast is, it should still fit and work. The only other consideration is the ball end at the top of the mast. It should be the same size as the subie, so that it seals the mast opening when closed, to cut down on water entry. If not, you may find that the ball ends are threaded on and you can swap them over. (I had to do that on a 90 Nissan 300zx antenna that went the same way. The original large ball end of the Nissan swapped over to the new mast easily.)

 

Good Luck if you can find another mast assembly that could fit. It'll be cheaper than buying a new subie one, if they are still in stock.

i think the teeth are whats broken on mine because i can here the motor turning and skipping on something inside. i got another mast form the yard today i think the motor was bad on the unit because my battery would not run the antenna motor while it would on another car that had something wrong with it and chose not to use that one. it started raining so now the cars out there with he rear taken apart and the antenna ready to come out.

it stopped raining tried to put it in broke the dam thing got mad at myself and went back to the junk yard and got another one. 2nd try worked out and got it installed and working.