You have a Hirschmann antenna, you can hear the motor whirring when you send it up or down, your mast isn't jammed up or broken... it's time to open this baby up.

Remove the antenna unit from your vehicle paying careful attention so that you can remember how to put it back in.

(Photo 1)
Now pop off the cover gently so that you don't snap the retainers off. I used a flathead screwdriver into the retainer holes

(Photo 2) (yes.. this is my old power antenna...)
If you see this, I doubt you can hear your motor whirring and you are lucky your whole car didn't catch on fire. this DIY won't help you, but if you are lucky you can save the gears, belt and mast off of this antenna)


(Photo 4)
This is what you should see, now if the round gear and the one beneath it can move independent of each other, continue with this DIY, if not, this is the wrong DIY (but feel free to check out the pictures) Remove the ring from the top of the shaft

(Photo 5)
Remove this thingy too

(Photo 6)
See that thing? The one with the circle around it? That doesn't go there!

(Photo 7)
Yep, you guessed it, it goes here.


I took the gear off my old burned up unit, and put it all back together. You might try (and I may still try) repairing the gear with a screw through the top side into that piece, or some superglue or epoxy..

Put everything together in the order it came apart, clean and lubricate your shaft.. erm.. MAST, and you should be golden now.. at least for a few more years...

Attached Thumbnails

         

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1985 MB 300D/T

Fell off the WVO bandwagon when people started trying to charge $2.50 a gallon for dirty vegetable oil.