Guest Slick Posted August 8, 2004 Report Share Posted August 8, 2004 This is one of those should-be-simple projects that has turned into WTF-project for me. Any help at all would be appreciated. I'm not an electronics or car expert by any stretch of the imagination, but this seemed like a simple project that turned bad, and I've run out of ideas as to what to do. I own a 1990 Buick Skylark with a power antenna. The antenna motor stopped working years ago, but I never really cared until someone recently snapped the antenna off. So, I go digging around in the trunk (the antenna is placed in the rear fender), see the antenna motor and think that it would be pretty straightforward to replace the unit. I purchased a Metra power antenna (AW-PW22) and planned on using the wiring leading to the old antenna to connect to the new antenna. That's when I got my first clue that this wasn't going to be as straightforward as I thought. Not including the ground and coaxl wires, the new anntenna motor has a red and a blue wire, and the wires in my car leading to the old antenna are an orange, black, and pink wire. I used a digital multimeter to determine that the orange and the black wires were the two wires carrying the 12 volts (the orange wire was the positive wire) the motor needed, and following the instructions, I connected the red wire to the orange, and the blue to the black. On the advice of a friend, I connected the pink wire to the ground wire, although someone else told me that I could just drop the pink wire and not even worry about it. So, I'm as certain as I can be that I have the wiring right. The only caveat I have to that is that I did forget to connect the ground to the chassis and did try and test the antenna, but the buzzing noise coming from the antenna motor alerted me to my mistake right quick. In case that matters. My problem is that the antenna just doesn't seem to work at all. I turn the radio on, and nothing happens. The instructions say that when the radio is on, I should still be able to pull the antenna mast out manually, but I can't even do that. I've given all the relevant details that I can think of, but if there's any more information needed to get help on this, I'll gladly give it. Thanks in advance for any help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryptnix Posted August 8, 2004 Report Share Posted August 8, 2004 umm, sounds like the new antenna uses the "shell" of the car for the ground ... the red is obviously the hot wire ... blue = remote from head unit ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Slick Posted August 8, 2004 Report Share Posted August 8, 2004 umm, sounds like the new antenna uses the "shell" of the car for the ground ... the red is obviously the hot wire ... blue = remote from head unit ... Yeah, the ground from the old and the new antenna is in the same place. As you said, connected to the "shell" of the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryptnix Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 it sounded like i wasn't much help ... did you figure it out?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THe_DeTAiL3R Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Doesn't the blue (remote) wire carry a power current? *Someone verify this idea is safe* Couldn't you try crossing the power wire of the motor to the remote wire and the antenna should work. Although would it go UP or DOWN? My '88 had power antenna that never did work, I just put a fixed antenna on it.. fuck it...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryptnix Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 yes, grr thats what i was trying to say damnit ... blah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Slick Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 The instructions specifically say that the blue wire connects to the radio and the red wire is the hot wire connecting to the "fuse block, battery, or hot side of ignition switch or any other +12 volt 'constant on' location." I checked the wires, and the orange wire was the +12 volt wire, and the black wire completed the circuit. I tried it that way, and when that didn't work, I did try the other combinations, but still no luck. I'm using the wiring that ran to the old antenna, and I'm assuming that that wiring isn't bad because it actually tested for a 12 volt circuit. So, either the $40 motor was faulty when I bought it (and I lost the receipt in the wash, damnit!), I ruined the motor when I left the ground unconnected for about 90 seconds (Is this likely? Is this even possible?), or there's some other problem that I can't even fathom. I'm going to try Metra's tech support one more time, and see if I can't get a suggestion that doesn't involve rewiring the whole system. If nothing comes from that call, then I have to decide whether I want to risk trying a new motor, or just go the fixed antenna route, which is only $10. Ironically, a fixed antenna only needs the coaxl calbe, and splicing that was the easiest part of this job, when I really thought that it would be the only part that might be difficult! Thanks for your help, people. I won't get around to this for a few more days, yet, so any other suggestions or comments would still be appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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