Power Antenna Swap

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
Post Reply
Devin
Advanced Member
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:08 pm
My tercel:: 1985 SR5
Location: Wheat Ridge, CO

Power Antenna Swap

Post by Devin »

After becoming addicted to the youtube channel Mighty Car Mods I have been thinking of tasteful little mods to do to the Tercel. I thought a power antenna would be sweet! I pulled back the inner wheel plastic and saw that there is some room to work with though I'd probably have to take the whole fender off to fab something up. My plans were to head to the wrecking yard and pull a power antenna unit and go from there. Any one have any ideas on where to mount the motor? Or maybe someone knows of a car that has a small unit?
User avatar
Petros
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 11930
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Power Antenna Swap

Post by Petros »

go look at smaller luxury cars in the wrecking yard that have power antennas. Acura perhaps, Lexus, or maybe the smaller MB?

I have been surfing the Mighty Car Mods videos too, some are spoofs, but some have good info. did you see the one on how to install power windows? there were some on this forum that wanted power windows in their tercels, I did not know there was a kit to convert them, I wonder if it is available in the states. see the youtube video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1AxO6Bt-kk
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
User avatar
dlb
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 7305
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:03 pm
My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: Power Antenna Swap

Post by dlb »

4th gen honda accord sedans ('90-'93) have power antennas mounted on the rear driver side corner. the motor is accessed through the trunk. not sure if it will work for you but it's a common car that has a power antenna, anyway.
Jarf
Top Notch Member
Posts: 354
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:20 pm
My tercel:: Currently without
Location: Ontario

Re: Power Antenna Swap

Post by Jarf »

Power antenna's are cool.
A few things you may want to know about before hand though.
One is you must keep them clean, any dirt that accumulates on them will cause them to bind,when they bind, they tend to strip the drive gears, either on the whip,or worse yet, the (non-replaceble) plastic drive gear on the motor.
Also, many antenna's have non-replaceable masts (this you want to know BEFORE you spend time and money making it fit) and even those that do, on average, 3-4 masts before you start running into drive gear problems.
While I was at Jag, assemblies were on the order of $500, new masts were "only" $80.

Then there is the wiring considerations, factory antennas are usually powered up and powered down with the signal actually coming form the radio head unit. (most A/M units will "auto down" when power is cut)
The motors and masts are notorious for having issues, I cannot count the number of times we replaced power with non because the customer got tired of spending money on such a silly thing. for awhile we tried the A/M units but found their lifespan to be even shorter than OEM.
And the NUMBER ONE reason we would replace masts/motors???
Car washes, even some of the touchless washes can destroy a power mast in short order.

One more thing to consider, the power antenna mast is not as robust as the stock unit, read that as they break and bend with great ease.

If you're still interested, I think you should go for it, just make sure you know the downsides up front.
Ricky2marin
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:46 pm
My tercel:: Toyota Corolla II

Re: Power Antenna Swap

Post by Ricky2marin »

Devin wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:15 pm After becoming addicted to the youtube channel Mighty Car Mods I have been thinking of tasteful little mods to do to the Tercel. I thought a power antenna would be sweet! I pulled back the inner wheel plastic and saw that there is some room to work with though I'd probably have to take the whole fender off to fab something up. My plans were to the android auto head units to wrecking yard and pull a power antenna unit and go from there. Any one have any ideas on where to mount the motor? Or maybe someone knows of a car that has a small unit?
In order to accomplish this, car stereo designers have created the Android Head Unit, which allows you to have all the convenience of your smartphone at your fingertips as you drive.
Post Reply