When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My 1984 928S which has not been on the road for many years has a genuine black Harada aerial. The car is near the end of a considerable but not nut and bolt restoration so I am at the stage of fitting up parts previously removed for painting. I connected the antenna and mounted into position then turned on the radio. The antenna extended however something went wrong. It over extended and as such the threaded nylon cord inside was no longer meshed to the gear. As such it won’t come back down.
I have pulled it apart carefully and found the electric motor is working perfectly but you cannot get the motor to work if connected to power via the connection which is the two power wires. There is a sound being emitted from the relays. Does anybody understand these relays? I suspect something was not right so when the antenna extended it didn’t have a stop mechanism that worked hence it just kept going till the cord was expelled.
There doesn't appear to be any water damage or burning to the relays, any clues?
There are three wires for the antenna. Red always hot from fuse 15 (on 1983), brown to ground, and a white wire from the radio that signals to raise or lower the mast. Where are you hearing noise from relays? There are no relays involved.
and the key on .
feed the nylon cable into the antenna base,
Then turn off the radio.
this will begin the retract operation,
NOTE you may need to help feed the cable into the mast base the correct way.
the antenna should fully retract up to the collar nut seating to the mast base and keep pulling for a few seconds then it should stop.
at this point turn off the key then thread the collar nut into the mast base then test your work.
So, I didn’t find this initially, my apologies for being a bit misleading, it was not the best light and it was deep the canister that the cord gets wound into. I found it when I was degreasing all the parts. I also worked out how this aerial works. It counts the revolutions and as such it wants to keep going even though the cord has been shortened. So effectively it winds out the cord and can’t bring it back down. Without a new cord I think I’m in trouble. Obviously this cord with the teeth is not the best design. It creates weak points. Does anybody know of a solution? Thanks.
The antenna won't run unless ground is made to the metal body, not to one of the 2 wires.
I've tried to repair a broken toothed mast cable like you have and been unsuccessful in all of my attempts. I tried a hot stapler to melt a piece of metal into the plastic cord to hold the 2 sides together. It worked a few times but isn't flexible enough. I tried heat shrink tubing that kind of conforms to the teeth but it gets torn up after a few cycles.
You will need to find a replacement mast or antenna, probably on ebay. The plastic toothed cable is actually part of the mast. I bought a complete antenna for some motor parts and might still have the mast from it. Let me know what your mast diameter is at the largest bottom section and the total length of the mast with the toothed cable that comes out the bottom (factoring in the broken section) and maybe the one I have will work for you. I think it's silver though. It won't work for me in my 914 as I have a remote mount motor version that takes a mast with a much longer toothed cable.
Thanks for those who responded, I decided that repair of the Harada was too hard and time consuming for a probably short term result. I did find a black motorized aerial on eBay and I’m hoping that I can adapt my Harada end pieces onto it. This would solve the problem beautifully. I’ll let you know. Cheers.
07-16-2019, 08:34 AM
Harada antenna help needed
