I tore my 85 300D antenna apart. It ran barely, and when I opened it I was glad I did, because it was caked with crap inside. I took the motor out cleaned it and put in new brushes and lubricated and cleaned the whole antenna case and drive assembly ( How does mud get in there....never mind, its a twenty year old car and someone took it through a swamp......) The thing is a little tricky. Now everything is clean as a whistle and the motor is so strong it can take your finger off ( I nearly did while adjusting it). NOW I CANT GET IT TO WORK RIGHT. I will post a picture within 3 hours

Did you get it running out of the car, then when fully installed it wouldn't work? maybe a ground.

Theres a brown ground wire on the harness. The antenna grounds itself. Thanks anyway.

Sounds like you got it all figured out.

<p> The little white gear in the middle of the antenna controls the solenoid/relay contacts and shuts the motor off and raises or lowers the antenna. The white gear has all kinds of funny lobes behind it which open and shut the motor controller.

I wish I could give you a useful answer, but in the past I've just cleaned mine and randomly fiddled around until they worked correctly. I have found that having the mast clean and well lubricated seems to help. The best results seem to result from using Silicon spray on the mast (everything else I've used seems to collect dirt and make things worse).

I once tried to crack mine open and figure out why it doesn't work. I gave up.

Later, I had to replace the mast in the Hirschmann antenna in my 944, and the whole time, while struggling, wrestling, and cursing, I couldn't stop thinking about all the other cars out there with integrated antennae in the windshield, little sharkfin antennae, japanese cars with little simple inexpensive antenna motors, or simply fixed antennae...

I'm sorry I can't help. Maybe take it apart again and see if you left something loose. See if you can use someone else's motor as a reference. How does it not work - completely dead, or it runs but doesn't dispense the mast, or what?

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'82 300TD - 345k miles, 3rd row seat deleted, w126 leather front seats, w126 front brakes, 2.47 final drive, burlwood shifter, electric locks w/ keyless entry, 16x7" wheels
'77 6.9 - getting some engine work done
'75 280S - stock
'87 Porsche 944 turbo

Go here for a exploded view diagram. scroll down

http://www.geocities.com/odemer@sbcglobal.net/Hirschmann.html

Dave

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1970 220D, owned 1980-1990
1980 240D, owned 1990-1992
1982 300TD, owned 1992-1993
1986 300SDL, owned 1993-2004
1999 E300, owned 1999-2003
1982 300TD, 213,880mi, owned since Nov 18, 1991- Aug 4, 2010 SOLD
1988 560SL, 100,000mi, owned since 1995
1965 Mustang Fastback Mileage Unknown(My sons)
1983 240D, 176,000mi (My daughers) owned since 2004
2007 Honda Accord EX-L I4 auto, the new daily driver
1985 300D 264,000mi Son's new daily driver.(sold)
2008 Hyundai Tiberon. Daughters new car

On the lower left corner, the wire spring should catch the roller bearing arm so that the roller bearing can effect presure against the mast wire. On your picture, the wire spring does nothing.

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Shane83SD

I tore into mine a few times, and got it to work good for a short time. I found it best to work on it in the trunk, with the wires still connected, so I could track the progress, and not over-do-it.

Thats what I thought, thanks---but thats just one of my problems. Unfortunately the four wires coming from the antenna were cut and they make no snese anyway because the antenna wire colors arent the same. I can lower the antenna easily, but never raise it --the four wires I have are Brown, Black, Green-Yellow and Blue. The Green Yellow wire with 12 Volts on it only make the solenoid relay chatter and buzz. I think the Green Yellow wire is the 12 Volts to raise it...This thing is like a Grandfather's clock

Unfortunately the four wires coming from the antenna were cut but they make no sense anyway because the antenna wire colors arent the same as the wiring harness in my car.
The four wires I have are Brown, Black, Green-Yellow and Blue.

On the workbench I can lower the antenna easily by applying 12 VDC to the black or blue wire, but I can never raise it -- The Green Yellow wire with 12 Volts on it only makes the solenoid relay chatter and buzz. I think the Green Yellow wire is the 12 Volts from the radio to raise it and the other black wire with 12VDC is the signal from the console switch to raise it to the max...Unfortunately I can get some limited twitchy buzzing raising of the antenna by tying the black and green yellow together and putting 12 VDC on it.
Also the little white gear does something to the relay/solenoid contacts and has to be oriented carefully.

For whatever it's worth, I've taken a look at my W123 wiring diagram and found the following:

1. The brown wire is ground, and connects to the brown wire in the car.

2. The green-yellow antenna wire connects to the blue-grey wire in the car, this is a wire from the antenna switch. This appears to be the 12V "signal" that tells the antenna to go up. There is no separate "signal" from the radio, the radio provides 12V to the switch when it's turned on and this wire has 12V if the switch is also in the "up" position.

3. My diagram shows a red wire (no blue wire) as the power supply coming from fuse number 2 on the car. I assume this is always energized to provide power to the antenna motor.

4. My diagram also shows two black wires from the antenna, both going to the antenna switch. One connects to a black wire on the car, and the other connects to a blue wire on the car. This is a little strange, but it looks like these two black wires are connected together (in the switch) to complete the circuit when the switch is in the "up" position.

Anyway, it looks to me like the following connections are needed to cycle the antenna:

Up position - Brown to ground, 12V to green-yellow wire, 12V to red wire, black wires connected together.

Down position - Brown to ground, 0V to green-yellow wire, 12V to red wire, black wires NOT connected together.

That's the best I could do from my diagram, hope it helps.

From what I can remember with no mast in, the motor will run a very long time. With the mast in place the motor will run until the mast tops out and stalls the motor this kicks out some sort of overload. When power is removed from the signal wire the mast will go down and keep trying to run until it kicks out the overload again. All of this is done internaly. I think the 4 wires are
1 Hot all the time
2 Full signal wire (from dash switch) Full up
3 Partial signal wire (from dash switch) Part way up
4 Ground
it's been a while since I had one torn apart

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2009 CLS550 55,000
2004 ML350 144,000
2004 X5 95,000
2002 X5 165,000
1996 320S 155,000 (sold)
1991 190E 192,000 (sold)
1989 300SE 160,00 (sold)
1984 300D 210,000 owned since 85, (sold)
1984 300SD 160,000 (sold)

I could never get them to work properly after taking them apart to swap to a good mast. I just look for good working units.

If anyone needs some for surgery, lemme know... they're yours for shipping only.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 243k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 322k
'91 560SEL 183k

Eight others from IH, BMW, GM, Ford, and Volvo.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]