Antenna mast
 

I bought a new replacement mast , compared the white "cord" that raises and lowers the antenna mast and the new one doesn't come with the black plastic ring to catch the "knob" on the end of the white cord? I see no what of switching it over without totally removing the white cord from the antenna assy.

Re: Antenna mast
 

Have you looked at the How-To Documents under antenna? You might find the info that you need. Good luck. :)

Re: Antenna mast
 

Yes i did, he did an excellent job, and since he only cleaned his and re-installed, it didn't answer the question. You can see the black "guide" on his. I went ahead and installed the new mast without it, seemed to work o.k. time will tell.

Re: Antenna mast
 

Have had my mast out of the motor casing several times during mast rebuild refurbishment.
The black plastic (slightly rubbery) grommet ring sits fixed at the bottom of the main curved plastic guide tube where it secures to the plastic motor casing. When you pull the old mast and white 'cord' cable out - probably black and filthy - sometimes it brings the black grommet gasket with it - because of accumulated grease and oil and dirt. The grommet is the last line of defense to resist water entering the drum.
I don't think the how-to guides explain this fully...the black grommet should stay in place at the bottom.

Pop the grommet off the old mast cable.

You can remove that lower tube (if you remove the antenna assembly from the fender) and place the cleaned black grommet back in position, re-secure the curved mast guide tube, re-install the antenna assemble without the mast and proceed as usual. You could also insert the new mast cable with the assembly laying flat in the trunk with enough clearance for the mast to fully extend during reset - very important- then re-install the assembly in the fender.

As instructed it is best if you did not run the motor after removing the mast; makes replacing a new mast a 5 minute job.
Feed the new mast cable down the tube and forcefully pop the ball through the grommet, where it will enter the reel drum slot. It doesn't take much to pop the ball through the rubberized grommet - you will feel it pop in.

If you did run the antenna motor after pulling the cable the drum slot will be out of alignment. Run the antenna up and down a few times (with a friend's help) and eventually it will catch & fully retract. (The drum reel has a sort of a clutch that will reset itself to the correct position after a few up&downs.)

Removing the antenna from the fender, removing the aluminum tube and flushing out the tube with de-greaser is always a good idea as the tube will be fouled with old accumulated dirt mud and grease. No need to take apart the black plastic motor housing, btw.

One more thing - the purpose of the grommet is to center & guide the cable as it ups&downs to prevent it from scraping where it enters the drum. Will make the nylon cable last longer and avoid shavings inside the motor unit.

I rarely use the retracting antenna except for demonstration. The window glass grid antenna works fine by itself for AM & FM reception. I installed a power cut-off switch inside the trunk's rear marker bulb access panel.

So, tell us, please...where did you source a new OEM SVX mast?

Re: Antenna mast
 

Hudiburg Subaru, Oklahoma city, $54.. Lee is my guy, when he saw i had an SVX, he set me up as a "shop" which gives me a little discount.The part wasn't in any of the diagrams.

Re: Antenna mast
 

Crap, forgot to lower mine before going into the car wash so I am in the market for a new antenna as well. I am going to look into a window antenna. Does anyone have a good way to "plug" the existing antenna "hole"?

Re: Antenna mast
 

You can find plugs at an auto parts store. You can use a little silicone under the lip as well.:)

Re: Antenna mast
 

Does that go in place of the tip of the antenna mast?

I was wondering about putting a high sensitivity amplifier inline with the window antenna that we already have and seeing how that works.

Re: Antenna mast
 

Glad to see there's another OK driver on here. Did he say anything about availability (are there a lot left)?

Huskymaniac,
Keep us posed on the inline amplifier; I've never cared for the retractable masts...

Re: Antenna mast
 

Subaruparts.com shows the antenna mast "in stock," so they're probably readily available through any Subaru dealership. (Sheesh, I'm certain I paid $30-something a few years ago; that's a massive increase.)

dcb

Re: Antenna mast
 

In my research on amplifiers I found myself on the Metra website. They listed this model antenna as a replacement for the OEM model on the SVX:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/METRA-44-PW2...#ht_526wt_1161

Has anyone tried this particular model before? It has multiple hardware options in the box to enable fitment.

Re: Antenna mast
 

And here is the best amplifier I have found. Does anyone know if the window antenna line is accessible under the back seat or from inside the trunk?

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...u=615798000004

Re: Antenna mast
 

I don't think this will work. Ours is curved in the truck fender.

Re: Antenna mast
 

Here is a photo of the OEM antenna.

Re: Antenna mast
 

He didn't make it sound like it was " the last one in stock", I don't think it's an issue to get replacements.