Repairing troublesome electric aerials

[GSRi]

Firstly, remove the 4 small screws and the nut in the centre of the base of the mast assembly.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/spleenlesswonder/Guides/PICT0130.jpg

Upon removal of the cover, you will see a white reel, which contains the cable that is used to raise and lower the mast

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/spleenlesswonder/Guides/PICT0119.jpg

Carefully remove this reel and free the cable.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/spleenlesswonder/Guides/PICT0121.jpg

Now the mast should be able to be raised and lowered by hand.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/spleenlesswonder/Guides/PICT0122.jpg


If this is difficult, look for seized joints or bent sections of the mast.
Clean all the mast sections once it is fully raised and spray plenty of WD40 or another suitable lubricant, into all of the joints.

Now to rebuild the aerial

With the aerial fully extended, re-attatch the cable to the white drum, taking care not to twist the cable, and fit the small ball on the end of it, into the recess in the white drum.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/spleenlesswonder/Guides/PICT0124.jpg
(Crap pic of ball on the end of the white cable)
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/spleenlesswonder/Guides/PICT0123.jpg

Re-fit the drum into the mast assembly and lower the mast by hand, by turning the drum.
Re-fit the 4 screws and the small nut and try it out.

If all goes well, the mast should reach it's maximum height once the stereo has been switched on.



Thanks to Mark (Branny361) for the pointers

Graham

[Branny361]

Glad I could help you graham

[dave's.cavy]

cheers, hopefully this will cure the annoying thing my ariel does, the last section never goes down, i have to push it down :grrr

[shrink]

i had mine totally to bits the other day and put back together.. works just fine.

its an aftermarket one though.. so the mechanism is ever so slightly different from the original cav one (and probably slightly better)

[himselfunknown]

Does anybody know where I can get a replacement mast from? It's an original Vx aerial as far as I know, and everything works fine, it's just that some fookin' chav snapped the mast up town the other day. :mad:
...and I just know that if I go to Vx they're going to shaft me.

[shrink]

scrappies would seem the best idea.. but with the hassle of changing one why not just buy a cheap new electric aerial?

[Paul TD]

cheers, hopefully this will cure the annoying thing my ariel does, the last section never goes down, i have to push it down :grrr

Mine was the same. After I'd stripped and cleaned it I noticed the lower section was oval. You can tell by running the Chrome fixing nut up and down it. A bit of gentle persuasion with the pliers wrapped in cloth and It's been fine since :D