77 450SL - antenna help

[ncgirl05]

Hi All,

I bought a new antenna not too long ago. We installed it but have a problem - it is stuck in the UP position and we can't figure out the wiring to make it work properly. I am attaching a photo of how it looks right now (which may or may not help).

Can any tell us what we've not done?

Thanks in advance for the help!!

Leigh Anne

[meltedpanda]

are you using the power from the radio on switch to raise? IS it an after market radio? Did your car have an original auto antenna? If so it will not work trough the old antenna switch wiring original to the older models. It can be done but it is not easy and may be the issue. If it is a new afermarket radio ,Easiest fix for aftermarket antenna is a toggle wired that will switch between positive and negative poles and allow up down motion.

If its all original , I would suspect you have a switch issue

[RadioTek]

The antenna should have 3 wires, besides the coaxial cable, you may have to look in the papers that came with it to determine which color is which.

Power (hot at all times)--often Red
Ground (ground)--often brown or black
Signal (signal from the radio) --- depends on manufacturer

Per the wiring diagram in the CD-ROM service manual, you should have a switch on your car somewhere, possibly just above the radio, that says: /\ ANT \/ . If you do, things are going to get complicated. No one, even Hirschmann, makes a replacement anymore.

If you are willing to try a little wiring yourself, we can sort of "Fake It". You will want to use the Red wire in the car wiirng for your Power lead, the Brown wire for your Ground lead, and the Blue with Gray stripe wire for your signal lead. You will have to have the switch in the Auto position for this to work. According to the wiring diagram, the switch has 5 positions, and Auto should be the middle one.

This assumes that you have the stock head unit, or an aftermarket head unit is connected to the factory wiring correctly. If you have an aftermarket head unit, you might just want to run a seperate wire from the 'Antenna Control" lead of it (look in the documentation), back to the antenna. It can be a little bit of a project, but it is doable. You might want to have this done if you are not comfortable with taking apart bits of your car.

If you lived in the Phoenix area, I'd just volunteer to meet up this weekend, but I'm sort of a Pro at this stuff.

If you need further details, feel free to PM me.

Scott

[meltedpanda]

kinda what I meant lol - but you say it much better than me !!!

[ncgirl05]

Thanks guys! RadioTek - will give it a try - I do have the antenna switch you referred to. I have an aftermarket radio that worked with the antenna I had in the car previously, so I am hopeful that this new antenna will work as well.

Thanks again - sorry for the delay in responding!