I am wondering what the expected problem-free life is for a completely NEW unit, base and mast? Or were these always a problem?

The car I have had a rebuilt unit installed at some point and I have dinked around with replacing the mast several times now.

What exactly is wrong with it?



I had two problems with mine. I had the tiny daughter board on my fry out after a leak in the tiny grommet. I was able to test the motor by connecting it to a 12 volt battery. The motor worked perfectly.

79mercy sent me a new board and I plugged it in.

My other problem was a lack of lubrication which caused the antenna to get stuck. I wiped on some white lithium grease and that solved the problem.

That antenna assembly is easily serviceable. I've had mine apart a handful of times.

It's been working perfectly since I fixed it last summer and I haven't had any issues since then.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

I have had it apart many times -- works ok for a while then problems with the mast withdrawing fully (new masts, old masts). Been down the lubricant path, pulling multiple units in the yards, combining with the best used parts, etc., etc.

I am wondering if someone has bought or remembers from when the car was new how long the (BRAND NEW) unit performed well?

Mine's original and I've never had a real problem. The mast got snapped off in the carwash about 6 months ago and I replaced the mast with a $16.50 MTC instead of a $45 Hirschman. I don't know what I was thinking in the first place but it's def a $16.50 mast. I'd never do it again and learned my lesson, Hirschman all the way.

I do regularly clean and lube it though so maybe that's why it's lasted so long. Mine's an '83 and I do think they changed the motor assembly somewhere along the line.

On mine there's a wheel on the gear that counts "clicks" as it rotates to tell it when it's fully up and when it's fully down so the failure to retract completely may be a result of mast installation and if the gears turned too many times before it caught the new mast to retract it. Also, make sure the plastic sleeve and antenna are fully seated against the stop inside the case. That gave me a few problems when I installed my new mast.

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'83 240D

If it means anything, my antenna mast was replaced brand new back in 1997 by the PO (stepdad). I always remembered it to go down smoothly but it takes a bit of time. I was 8ish at the time, but I remember it being moderately fast going up and down.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

Thanks -- it sounds like it is worthwhile to just buy a new one.

BTW, one new mast I purchased began to rust in 30 days. I had to laugh at myself. That was from the same outfit that sold me a new grill surround that began to rust in about the same amount of time. Thank goodness I saved the original one. That was before I realized that when a company lists the OEM part number it does not always mean that it is an OEM part or from an OEM supplier.