Problem with Hirschmann Universal antenna

[bnoonan]

OK, I ordered the universal antenna from PP for my 1980 300d. I wanted to keep the original wiring pin connector from the car, so I pulled the old cable from the broken antenna and wired it to the new universal antenna (I had used a multimeter to identify Pin 1 as the constant 12V source (connected to red wire on Universal) and Pin 2 as the on-when-radio-on (connected to green wire on Universal)). Mounted her up...and no go (after some immediate whirring when connecting).

I pulled it out, grabbed a battery and bench tested. Antenna ground to battery ground; two wires from battery +

When I touched both antenna pins with + wires at the same time, the antenna would extend. When I remove the + wire from Pin 2 the antenna would retract...but only partially. Continued tinkering has left me with a fully extended antenna that now only pulls back 1"-3" when power to Pin 2 is removed (I have attached an image of this).

Am I doing something wrong or do I have a bad antenna?

[brownrice78]

those universal antennas work with 3 wires total coming from car. One is a ground, 2nd is power always on, 3rd is remote (when radio is on). I connected one of those years ago to a 300D. I remember having to modify the wires going to the antenna switch for it to work. I believe I bypassed them somehow by connecting the radio directly to the antenna.

[Diseasel300]

Your bench test proves the antenna has a problem. 3-wire antennas are pretty simple - Power on the control wire should make it fully extend. No power on the control wire should make it fully retract.

[bnoonan]

Thanks Diseasel300. Thats what I thought but just figured it was worth double checking with the community. I'm not super comfortable yet with wiring, but this seemed super simple.