Hi there,

I got my dead Hirshmann antenna working again! This will not work for everyone, but it did for me....

Many times, the actuator on the antenna is not dead. It is just the gears, winder, worm drive, etc. that are gummed up or jammed due to being gummed up. Here is how to free up and get working smoothly if this is the case for you too:

1) Unplug the antenna (the blue circled item in the attached photo). It unplugs by easily wiggling back and forth while pulling straight up off the plugs' base. There are no hidden squeeze points or anything like that. Just a tight fit to hold it plugged in. You can do the following below, but you risk losing a white fuse if you accidentally get too much WD40 in the electrical area or touch metal incorrectly. (I know this because I did NOT do this step ).

2) Remove the antenna motor cover (you do not need to remove the antenna nor the mast).

3) If your antenna is raised... spray - liberally - WD40 onto 2 sheets of blue shop paper towel folder folded into about a 4-5" square. With the paper soaked, lightly wrap it around the antenna and slide up and down to ensure the entire antenna is fully lubricated. This method ensures you do not get too much WD40 on it, to where it will gum up, and prevents overspray from getting on your car.

4) Spray the entire area marked in red in the attached photo, with WD40. Spray it liberally so it drips. Be sure to spray everything you can see, including behind the wind up wheel, the worm drive (the shaft that protrudes from the motor (marked in yellow in the photo) and drives the wind up gear).

5) If you could not do step 3, because your antenna was down, pull up ever so gently, a few inches at a time, on the antenna until you get it almost all the way up. WARNING: If your antenna works, do NOT do this, instead plug it back in and get the radio/switch to extend the antenna. Now repeat step 3.

6) Now plug the antenna back in (the item in blue in the photo).

7) Now cross your fingers. This step will be made much easier if you have a helper. Get ready with a small hammer, I used a small ball-pein hammer, to gently rap on the actuator (marked in yellow in the photo). As quickly as you can, when you (or your helper) turns the radio on and the antenna switch in the full up position, rap on the actuator (hard enough to give it a decent knock, but soft enough NOT to leave a noticable dent). If it kicks to life, stop rapping on it.

8) Spray the red section again, liberally with WD40. Now turn the radio off and switch to the down antenna position. If the antenna goes down, great! If not, rap it again a few times until it comes to life.

9) Repeat steps 7 and 8 about 5 times until you get consistent operation. Spray liberally one more time and then screw the cover back on.

Viola!

I hope this helps at least one other person.

Take care,

Robert

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This may be a great idea if you have an intact antenna cable or good gears. Unfortunately the most common failures occur to the aforementioned items so there is little you can do to salvage your antenna.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I've done, more or less, the same think to a couple. Sometimes they are just gunked up, not broken.

WD-40 is great for cleaning but terrible for lubrication. When I put mine back together I used some low-temperature grease called "slick honey" (designed for mountain bike forks) on the gears and it runs much more smoothly now.

Granted the switch seems to be malfunctioning now but at least the gears are smooth lol

If the mast or tail is broken it is easy to put in a new one. I found the big problem on mine, after replacing the mast, was the tensioner wheel and pivot were not moving freely. The part is circled in red in the lower left in the attached picture. I lubed this and using a screw driver I moved the arm back and forth to get it moving. No more problems so far.

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1983 300SD
200000miles