Antenna repacement

[q45t96]

I just had my antenna replaced and backed out of the garage while the door was comming down. Bent it really good and after a few days it broke off. So I have to do it again. I thought I would try to do it myself this time. How difficult is it to replace. Do I need a spacial tool. I am sure that there was nothing left inside as the entire plastic internal part came out. Thanks for your help.

I am also curious if any of you have the Clarion CD changer. Is it a pretty good unit and have you had any problems with it. I finally got tired of the old Sony skipping through some CD.

[greg_atlanta]

Just order the antenna mast. Should be around $25-35 from Scottsdale. Not hard to replace, but you need two people.

Basic steps (as I remember):

1. turn off radio

2. unscrew and remove chrome piece holding the antenna

3. turn on radio and let the motor spit the mast out

4. feed new mast (has plastic teeth) into the hole and have someone else turn off radio... you have to make sure it catches the teeth pretty quickly.

May take a few tries to get it right. If it doesn't catch soon enough, you have to turn radio on again, spit it out, and try again.

Frustrating, but do-able.

[DAEDALUS]

Be ready to catch the end of the old mast's plastic rod or it will likely flick grease onto your car and sign you up for a carwash. The reason it's so frustrating is because at the bottom of the shaft that you feed the plastic rod into, there is a slightly smaller hole that the rod must go into. The curved rod tends to miss the center-hole and get caught. You need to get it into the smaller hole first before turning off the radio. Learn by feel; rotating the rod left-right sometimes helps. If you get it in there it should catch fairly quickly when you turn off the radio. Make sure the teeth on the rod are facing the same direction as the teeth on the old mast.

[Chally]

Clarion? Couldn't get better.

Had one in my last car & it skipped ONCE in 5 years. I was doing some rally driving over severe corrigations sliding sideways, & then it only skipped for a second.

Clarion is one of the best units you can get & in one test I saw, the Clarion Head unit (CD player) was as good as the test equipment it was being rated by.

IMHO, the Clarion is way ahead of the Sony.

I may be wrong, but I think Bose is owned by Clarion. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[AZhitman]

I bought a Clarion single-disc in-dash CD player in 1989 (as you can guess, it cost an a$$-load of $$$ back then). Had it in four different cars (one of which had no roof and was exposed to the elements), never maintained it and I can remember the ONLY 2 times it EVER skipped:

In my slammed 84 CRX getting airborne crossing the Tanque Verde Wash in Tucson at 60 mph...

And when I got squirrelly and slid sideways into a curb in my 94 Si in a rainstorm.

Clarion manufactures the Bose equipment - Bose is the "lab" that has patents on the technology.