95 E420 - purchased a new antenna mast. The motor still runs in the mechanism but the old nylon belt inside the antenna was badly worn. I have tried unsuccessfully from every direction to get the new one to catch the gear. Are the teeth in the motor also nylon or metal? I am wondering if they are worn also?

 

copper i think.

just insert the new one till it catch.

 

if your old antenna mast broke, you will have to remove the remaining piece inside the motor to make room for the new one. also if the new ant. mast does not have teeth, then should just grab it soon as you feed it in after turning off the radio. have someone operate the radio for you to avoid damage on your car or to the new antenna mast.

 

I had my wife operating it. When I laid the old one next to the new one, there did not appear to be any missing on the old one. The old teeth did look pretty worn compared to the new one. I just never could get it to grab in any direction. I could hear the motor under some strain as i pushed but it never would grab and pull it in? I will give it another shot tomorrow after work. Its been frustrating...everything else has been pretty easy to tackle on the car. I thought the antenna would be a 5 minute job!

 

Have you got it to grab yet? I am having the exact same problem.

 

No I have not. I have attempted this several times over the past few weeks. I am thinking the gear that does the grabbing must have its teeth in bad shape at this point. I may get up the nerve to pull the motor out and open it for a look this weekend.

 

I think I can help. I just figured mine out. I removed the antenna motor, which is very easy, one screw holds it in , then you just pull it down. Then I opened the motor. There is two circular gears in there, one on top of the other. In my case the upper gear was turning but the bottum gear, the one that grabs the cable, was not turning. So I took out the gears, there is a small piece of plastic that is suppose to be protruding from the one gear , that piece of plastic grabs the other gear, that piece of plastic was broken off on mine, that is why the one gear was not turing. So I did a quick repair to the two gears, I screwed small screw threw them, there is a hole in them already so I just used a screw in that hole. I dremmeled off the excess screw , put the gears back in the motor , put the cover back on the motor, tried it before reinstalling the motor in its place in the car , and it worked , it grabbed the cable first try, and every try. So I then put the motor back where it belonged in the car and inserted the antenna , and it took perfectly. Very easy. The screw may not last forever in there , but it was a quick easy fix. If you have more time maybe you can fix those wheels together better then with one screw. But it is still working great for me.
I hope this helps you.

 

how do you access the antenna motor for a 99 500sl