It seems my antenna cable on my 1966 power antenna is bad and needs replacement. My question is how do I get to the antenna end of the cable? It seems there is no way to easily remove the antenna from the car. I am probably missing something obvious. Any help would be apperciated. Thanks in advance, Bob.
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
Robert,
If the power antenna is similar to a manual antenna then you can get to it however its a pain. Remove exhaust & tire - don't think you need to touch spare tire tub (mines out so can not tell) -
Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
You might want to try researching some earlier threads. I know I posted a couple months ago on the subject, and referenced a couple of articles that were in the Corvette Restorer on disassembly and repair of the 65/66 power antenna.
LynnComment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
Robert,is the problem the cable/or the antena mast??
FrancisComment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
I believe it is the cable. The antenna works fine(goes up and down) but I get no reception when the cable is plugged into the am/fm radio and there is no resistence on an ohm meter so I think there is a break inside the cable somewhere.Comment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
Hi,
You need to remove the door sill and wire cover under rug (rear harness goes side by side with antenna cable) , go to back deck under rug to grommet on back rear wall, near spring. Cut cable near antenna and pull out. You have to take out grommet , real pain.
Plug in new cable in radio and fish through dash area , under kick panel back along wire cover ( clips that hold wire cover along sill are usually rusty and break) tread back up rear deck , put through new grommet first , then put grommet back in body hole, (put antenna end of cable through hole first) ( take off exhaust on that side to make it easier to reach antenna )
plug in antenna cable , put back exhaust muffler and you are done.
Have fun
JackComment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
Bob -
I don't think you can check the antenna cable that way - I seem to recall Jack Humphrey saying the cable has a capacitance element in it which makes it impossible to verify continuity with a VOM. Maybe Jack will chime in.Comment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
But before you do that job - get another antenna (fixed) with cable (borrow is the best) Plug into radio to verify it works.
If it does then off to work, if it does not - rethink.Comment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
OK Robert, 1st of all you can buy an after mkt.antena unit (remote type),the kind that you could mount anywhere in the car,you would need to provide temp.12volts to this unit the ones i have seen have the same bayonet jack on one end to plug into the radio.After you complete the temp hook-up you will be able to tell if the problem is in the antena system(cable&/or antenna) if thre radidio works after the test I would then work on replacing the cable,I have done this on my coupe not to bad of a job.
With the driver seat out lift the carpet from the area (radio consel /to the kick rail on driver side.Slidethe cable out from under the matt.to the wire compartment on kick rail.Once there attach a retrival piece of string to the tublar jack end of the cable.After removing the left hand side muffler under the car u will be able to reach up and disconnect the cable from the antenna body,once done you should be able to draw the cable out slowly while feeding the new cable in and under the existing floor matt and carpet ,(up and over the wheel well.
Good luck,and get back to me with any ques.
Francis
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
You won't hurt anything by trying to confirm continuity with a VOM. There are differences between various antenna inter-connect systems with the 'el cheapo' replacement units (K-Mart, WalMart) being of the simplest, garden variety, construction.
The antenna is capacitively coupled to the radio which is why the 'trimmer' mechanism that's inside the radio to make fine adjustement (peaking the signal) is NOT a variable resistor--it's a variable capacitor. Why is the antenna capacitively coupled to the radio?
Simple, and you've all experienced the phenomena... You're out driving and playing the radio. The road curves 'just right' and you either cross under or drive closely parallel to an overhead power distribution line. You hear a low frequency HUM that, depending on conditions, can be so loud that it 'swamps' the radio signal itself!
What's happening is the first stage, high gain amplifier in the radio is being SATURATED with 60 Hz interference from the nearby power lines. So, radio designers capacitively couple the radio antenna to reduce this interference threat. Capacitors pass AC signals and block DC while inductors exhibit the opposite electrical characteristics (block AC and pass DC).
For an omnibus part (like the WalMart replacement antenna), the mfgr has no idea of the characteristics of the radio his antenna is being connected to. So, the interconnect is usually purely resistive relying on the capacitive coupling built/designed into the radio receiver itself to handle the low frequency power line interference issue.
But, in automotive applications, designers have control of both the radio as well as the antenna. So, they can 'beef up' the system a bit by putting strategic capacitance in BOTH the receiver as well as the antenna lead-in...
That's why it's not a good bet to presume that ALL antenna cabling systems will exibit end to end DC continuity! Sometimes they've been 'tweaked' to embed a capacitor of a critical value into the cable itself...Comment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
Yes, I will try the new antenna. The reason I think the radio is fine is I just had it rebuilt from Charles Siegfried. He tested it and said it works fine.Comment
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Re: 66 Antenna Cable Removal Help Needed
I tried another antenna as suggested and the radio works fine, so I suppose it is the cable for sure. I want to thank all of you for your help. I will order a new cable and see what I can do. Thanks again, Bob.Comment
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