1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

I don't him personally but, Rich has helped me out tremendously over the years through this forum. His pictures and explanations are second to none as far as details go. I can't even remember how many of his post I used to get me through my restoration.
I always wondered if I could tackle a rebuild on an extra power antenna I have. So, after reading his #5 thread very carefully I could not help but notice his final comment:

"P.S. I did this on the fly and may add more info later when I get some cycles."

I can't wait to see what he can do if he would just put a little effort into his postings!!!!

Sorry Rich, but that comment just made me laugh, as that post is your idea of "on the fly" and I had to comment on it!

Jim

Jim

Hi Jim, I chuckled. Thanks for the fun read. Glad my info has helped.

For the record, when I post "on the fly", I'm basically referring to typing, submitting, typing more, submitting again, etc. It's mainly because I tend to type a lot of stuff and add photos, and want to save it here in case my laptop dies inadvertently, or loose internet somehow.

I should use Word or Acrobat offline and just copy/paste in the thread, but the formats don't synchronize properly sometimes.

Rich

[Jim S.]

Re: 1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

"For the record, when I post "on the fly", I'm basically referring to typing, submitting, typing more, submitting again, etc."

Oh! that's very different!
Never mind!

Jim

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

I have another antenna here I'm looking at for a friend.....(I need something to do so I asked him if I could try to fit it) Rah-Roh... Here we go again.....lol

I took it all apart. Broken cable. Rusted armature. Worm gear seized in the case. Missing a few little parts, a clutch spring, rusty deformed clutch balls. Pretty ugly, but a very nice original mast. Sadly, like most masts. The whip is jammed tight in mast#1. The cable was broken in the spool so I just cut it off.

I'll document and photograph the attempt if you want to follow along. I'm adding this to Wayne's thread for now but will try to combine it into other threads later into a pdf(Zube...are you there?)

Rich
----
The project:

Ugly....
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Pieces everywhere. Sorry Chrome Generator
You're gonna have to wait. This is more fun....lol
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Soaking the seized armature worm gear in rust remover. This could take days.
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Overnight gravity drip of rust remover. If I get this whip freed up I may have a way of getting a replacement cable.... from ITALY!
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See the bubbles? It seems to be tickling the cable deep in the mast. If I can free this nice mast assembly up, it may be salvageable.
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I'm planning a mod to use standard stock springs and balls for the clutch mechanism.
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[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

Update: Progressing restoration has been challenging. Of the 5 antennas I've experienced over the last few months, this one has a unique set of problems, not seen in the other 4.

Firstly, the stuck whip in the mast anomaly. This is a very nice mast assembly, albeit the cable is broken and the whip is seized in mast 1. I'm attempting to salvage it, in preparation to replace the cable at some point. There is a Helix Cable manufacturer in Italy that was discovered. Several attempts to communicate have yielded "crickets"......no replies. I may have to book a flight and go there.

I attempted a new idea using a funnel and clear hose snugged over the end to gravity bleed my rust remover solution down into the assembly. I let this bleed continuously for about 36 hours. You can see the bubbles in the clear tube as it reaches down into the rusted masts.
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I then used my wood block to clamp the whip as I hit it using my heavy brass hammer. No Joy.
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Since movement results were negative, I decided to disassemble it so I could continue with the idea specifically just on mast 1. I removed the lower coupler from the main mast and pulled the sections apart. Now I could see a dirty, hard, black material inside mast 1 where the cable is seized. It's like a semi-hardened epoxy, consisting of grease, dirt, rust, and likely other alien chemical compounds. I's nasty looking.
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Thinking about the original design, as we know, the reason these seize is quite simple. Water from rain, washing, etc, will traverse down the whip then find its way into mast 1. Over time the seize function takes over from non use.

If I were to design this antenna, I'd have come up with some type of seal between the whip and mast 1. Similar to the seals that hydraulic cylinders use, but not as complex. A simple tiny o-ring, or several, configured so they rest inside mast 1 at the very top, lubricated with silicone grease. As the whip traverses up and down, it gets wiped clean and free of water as it retracts into mast 1.

Ok, 'nuff of that, back to the project.....

I then set up my funneled solution on mast 1 procedure late yesterday and will let it continue indefinitely while I do other things. I may try some heat to help activate some release capability at some point. The product is not flammable but I'll be careful, using eye and skin protection. I'll probably take my vice'd assembly outside as there may be some caustic fumes involved.


I then went to next next culprit.... the seized armature worm gear. My solution worked quite well over the night and after cleaning the debris away, along with some force at the end of the worm gear, the armature/motor assembly came away from the case.
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As you can see, this one hasn't rotated in a long time.
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Don't loose the ball down in to shaft bushing area. I think this one was apart once before as it is missing the thrust busing disk as I've seen on other motor assemblies. I have spares I've made. Without this disk, the motor brushes don't line up properly to the armature copper stator segments.
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I'll need to clean the case as well. I plan on a light media blast.
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I cleaned the armature and tested it using my growler. It's fine.
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Now onto the other flaws in this antenna menagerie. There are several.

The clutched gear assembly has a missing spring and the balls ar more like tiny rocks. Both are an odd size, apx 0.220" in diameter.

I have a stock of standard 0.250" springs and balls on the shelf for other projects. I will upgrade the plastic gear to accommodate the standard parts. I recommend you do this when rebuilding your antennas. Your local hardware store will have the parts.

Here is a mockup comparison of the spring and ball. I'll get a better image of the hen-scratched notes later.
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I cleaned the plastic gear and soaked the metal gear in my solution for a few hours. I will do a light media blast on the metal gear as it's pretty rough. Then I'll put a paint coating on it for protection.

For the plastic gear, I simply drilled the spring holes in the 4 positions out to 1/4". I did this on my mill so I could set depth properly. You don't want to drill too far.
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I'll have to cut these springs as they're a bit long. I may get 2 springs out of each long single part. I'll cut them using my Dremel disk.
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Next up.... Upon disassembly, I noticed that a special washer under the C-Clip was missing. This is to protect the C-Clip from shaving material from the brass shaft coupler. I had to make one from a washer collection I have for radio shafts. I did it by hand using my Dremel with a side cutter bit, slowly circling the ID, test fit, repeat.
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Here it is placed on the brass bushing.
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It worked out fine after a test fit of the clip.
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More later as I progress.
Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

More progress:

Yesterday I spent more time trying to free the mast. It was still seized. I decided to disassemble the mast sections. I had to cut the base away and removed mast 1 and whip assembly so I could treat that separately. If I can get the cable free from mast 1, there may be a chance to repair it at some point.

The motor was next. As you recall the worm was seized and I got it freed up with a overnight solution bath. After cleaning and testing the armature, I reassembled and adjusted for a test. Ironically, the motor was missing the end thrust shims. I had one saved from a prior unit and used it for testing. I'll need to add another as there was too much endplay and the gear to worm alignment was not optimal.

Here's the test setup, connected to a fully charged battery, fused at the source.
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The switch was made form extra pieces I had that Brian Tilles sent me years ago on a 66 restoration I did, and a recently acquired extra escutcheon that he found lying around at his company. I put all the pieces together and made a test switch up. Thanks again Brian! I also found the mating connector for the motor power plug and made up a quick disconnect harness.

I also use this switch to test Headlight Motors after swapping out my PW motor test plug and plugging in a cut-off forward harness HL motor harness plug from a old midyear harness I had here.

Here it is running again, likely after many years of non-use. Needs another armature shaft end-shim but mainly to see it alive again.

https://youtube.com/shorts/NEunHaMsODg?feature=share

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

Update:

For reference see THIS THREAD for information regarding the thread size for the gearcase mount bolt. This case had a stripped hole. Size is 1/4-28.

I've made some discoveries, and some progress, and some negative progress.

As mentioned, I disassembled all of the masts, leaving me with just Mast 1 and the stuck whip to enjoy. I'm determined to free this up. I decide brute force will help, so in order to pull the whip completely free of the mast to its top stop point, I took out the monster slide hammer/puller.

I would place the stainless whip in my vice, snug it up tightly, then pull on the mast until it pooped free. The idea here is to then use penetrant to get down into the mast from up top, just like water would gravity feed down, and ultimately seize it up.
The Monster Slide Hammer/Puller
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In order to use it, I had to make a few modifications to the tool. I used the large coupler fitting which typically holds tooling. In this case, it'll hold the mast at the bulge of the base. I found some metric nuts to fit into the tool, and drilled them out slightly to fit snugly over the mast. I needed 2 nuts for clearance.

But there is about a inch of mast sticking out beyond the bulge there, so I had to drill a hole in the end of the puller bar to allow the end of the mast to to not be damaged when pulling. The lathe cam in handy for drilling the long bar.
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The mast sits in the puller bar hole, then the nut slides over the mast to the bottom mast bulge, and then the coupler threads onto the end of the puller bar, capturing the assembly.Now ready for the brute force.
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I then assembled the contraption, clamped the whip in the vice, and in one swift slide.......... POP, the whip was free of mast 1. Now I could try heat and get the whip to move in the other direction, after applying penetrant, to down, and/or heat.

I tried it for a while, then heated the mast with my torch. As I slid the mast back and forth in and out of the clamped whip, something came out of the mast, a gooey mass, with traces of a opaque appearance. Guess what..... It's plastic! There is a plastic seal material inside mast 1. I proved it by scraping the hardened material off of the whip with my Xacto blade. Here.....
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Here it is, magnified. It melts using a flame.
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So now, by using heat, I've likely created a melted plastic glob inside mast one, and once cooled, it's like it's glued in.

Next step? To be determined.

BTW, I now have TWO mast 1's that have the whip stuck at exactly the some location, 7" from the end of the mast.

More later,
Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 Power Antenna Disassembly

Success. I have freed the whip from Mast 1 with minimal/easily corrected damage. I'll add narrative later. Pictures for now.

This was on a poor condition Mast 1 that I used as a sacrificial lamb. The other lambs will live again.

Rich