Wednesday, March 05, 2008 - 07:02 pm, by: Russell Rohde(Ax0n)
I have on the front passenger corner of my front bumber an electric antenna used to help with parking. My fiancee being a short girl, finds judging the distance to the front hard and i'm sick of her bunping walls, etc.
So, It's not working. I've removed and dissassembled it to find the flexible rod in the centre is hardened and broken into peices no longer than 15mm. A mate has given me a generic antenna for a commodore. The segments on the replacment antenna are too long and when down will stay up by about 100mm. does anyone know if there is a way to disassemble the existing antenna (not control module with box) so I can replace the flexible rod only? (Or can i buy a replacment antenna anywhere?)
Friday, March 28, 2008 - 04:40 pm, by: Russell Rohde(Ax0n)
Well, I was lucky then.
A mate was given a replacment electric antenna for his commodore and it was the wrong size - no receipt - no return. So I ended up with it.
I removed and disassembled the soarer parking antenna. (Sorry - no photos - I lost them when I formatted the PC so I'll explain as best as possible). With the Antenna rod in my hand, i pushed the rod and the plastic core all the way down so the antenna is about 5-6inches long. I cut off the inside core about 3/4 inches below that. I then got the end of the core from the commodore antenna and fitted the two cores together end-to-end.
This is the bit where my ingenuity took over
I had some of those yellow colored in-line wiring crimps - you know, the ones that have a round hole either end. not the round ones that clip together - just the basic in-line connectors.
So, I shoved either ends of the two antenna cores into the connector and 'Lightly' crimped them. I should also note that before I did this, I bent out that little 'stopper' inside the connector so that I could get the two core ends to touch. After bending out, I put some special 'conduit glue' inside then shoved the two core ends in. The conduit glue has this cool little effect where it actually breaks down plastics into a thick liquid. this let me shove the two core ends together quite hard ultimatly 'mixing' the two core ends together so that when the glue sets, the two cores really bocome one. then I lightly crimped it.
That hard bit was figuring out how long to cut the "New-and-improved-and-extended" antenna core. After figuring that out, I went on the hunt and found a nut that I could force onto the far end of the affore mentioned "New-and-improved-and-extended" core. Only down side - there is no light in the top but with the head lights on at night I can see it fine.
****You will need to smooth the new joint over somehow so that it does not get caught or snagged on the inside of the antenna. I just used some Areldite and put some either end of the connector than once it set, I used the Old Girl's Dremmel to smooth it down to a nice even lip.
Put it all back together, fit it in place, and hey presto - no more missus hitting parked cars, light posts, fences, garage wall, and just about anything else that wont fit under the car.
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