Hi All,

In brief, unable to feed in white plastic teeth of removed antenna with working motor on 93 190E.

Previous owner told me the antenna was new, and that I just needed to thread the white plastic into the motor...

Today I had a look, and removed the antenna by loosening the appropriate external bolt, turning on the ignition and pulling the antenna completely out.

I found the metal antenna mast slightly tight, so oiled that and the white plastic. Now turning the vehicle to off, the antenna is not retracting back into the system at all as I attempt to re-install.

I'm feeding in as much of the white platic toothed thing (what's the proper name for that?) as possible until it stops, then turning off the ignition, but it's not taking it in. Again, the motor sounds normal, and the white plastic teeth seem alright.

Thanks for any help on what I'm sure must be a simple solution. Sorry if I'm missing the obvious here.

Take care

 

Hi again,

Well, after trying unsuccessfully to feed in the white tail of the antenna, I decided to take the motor off and have a look. Again, the motor sounded fine...

I removed the motor and put it on a bench.

When I opened it, I found a plastic part had broken off from between the two white plastic wheels/gears. So the lower wheel was not connected to the upper wheel, and therefore, not activated by the motor.


One wheel is turned by the gear of the motor, and this in turn turns the other wheel below it. These two wheels lie on top of each other. In the photos you see red arrows pointing to the broken plaster spacer on the lower/inner wheel, and a green arrow pointing to a hole in the upper/outer wheel that contacts the gear turned by the motor.

It seemed that the unit had been disassembled before. My though was that a pin was missing from the hole by the green arrow, which would slide through the plastic spacer on the lower wheel, thus connecting both wheels, and causing the lower wheel to turn.

I super glued the broken plastic spacer back on to the wheel, and made a pin from a river to slide through the upper wheel's hole through the repaired spacer in the lower wheel, thus connecting the two.

I re-installed the unit. The motor works again but I haven't yet got the antenna back in; mosquitoes were too thirsty.

I did check that the tail went into the motor unit while it was disassembled. It did, but it's tricky and catches on something. It went in with a bit of wiggling. Hopefully will go in easier tomorrow when I finish...

The most difficult part was getting the motor mounted again, which just involved lining up the mounting screw. (Slightly awkward as you need to lean into the trunk a bit. Not too bad though.) Once lined up, it slides right on. N.B. The screw and bracket attached to the body don't need to come of for this, just loosen the nut that attaches under the motor housing. This allows the body to be pulled forward and off.

I'm glad I took off the motor for this, since simply removing the plastic cover while mounted could have resulted in some parts coming off inadvertently from the gears inside etc. And of course, I wouldn't have discovered the damaged part inside.

More to come...

 

Well, I fed the antenna in yesterday, turned off ignition and it only took it in a couple inches before motor stopped running. Took unit off again and found super-glue didn't hold and gear was blocked by the pin I installed, which had come out.

Decided to go with a heavier-duty plastic glue, and join the two white gear wheels at their axes, since this would be a stonger union than the broken plast support. Still, re-installed my pin, and sealed it in with the plastic compound, which hardens into a plastic like substance, and re-installed the unit.

Power antenna now working like a charm. I wonder why the unit wasn't originally designed as a single piece (i.e the two wheels that turn together)? Hopefully, it'll last. Will post update if needed.

 

Hi,

I've got the same vehicle, just picked it up and it's wonderful, only problem is the antenna, which is broken off. I get intermittent reception on it, but wanted to try and make it more reliable at this point because signal strength greatly varies.

Would you recommend installing a whole new antenna assembly? How hard would you say that is, for someone who can fumble his way around but is by no means a good mechanic.

Would I be able to just install a new outside for the antenna?

Any feedback is appreciated.