Well I am poised to purchase an ebay anti vandal one piece RMA305 UNIVERSAL aerial as I miss listening to the radio (£5). When I bought the car the aerial had been snapped off by vandals, back when it must have been cool to steal aerials.

Every time I switched the radio on I got the well known grinding noise emanating from the boot and of course just white noise.The very first thing I did to my ST205 was fix the snapped aerial with an oem style extendible unit, with the nylon ratchet cord thing that hangs out the bottom. Great I thought "I am man hear me roar! For I have fixed something!"

However I have now realised the motor was on it's last legs and the aerial only goes up about 3" and reception is awful.


The main question: The aerial motor was fairly easy to unplug and remove, but is there anything I need to do to prevent the unused plug from shorting out in the future? Is it just as simple as remove motor and then plug in new aerial (maybe electrical tape round unused plug)?

Any thoughts on this much appreciated http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150711459024

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I like the tuna here! https://www.facebook.com/southcoastworkshop

I would probably try and find a small plastic bag to enclose the plug and then zip tie the neck around the cable above the plug. This will leave the plug protected from moisture. This will make it a lot easier if someone wants to fit a motorised aerial in the future. If you just use electrical tape then eventually the adhesive will weep and create a mess.

I'd be interested to hear how well your new aerial works.

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Thanks Don, always can count on your wisdom.
As far as the plug goes I will bag it and tag it, sounds like a good strategy for keeping it clear from dust and moisture.
I'm sure the reception should be adequate, can't be any worse than it is now.

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I like the tuna here! https://www.facebook.com/southcoastworkshop

It works!!! Its so much better than my motorised one and makes my car look a bit like an RC car, which I quite like. I dime bagged, cable tied and taped up the motor power connection and removed the motorised unit. I have to say that they are massive and quite heavy, seems like overkill to have that fitted in the first place.

I need to get some tiger bond or balm? I need to stick it down and make it properly water tight, but as I have a car cover it should be fine for now.

I used a combination of the OEM fitting rubber and the ebay mounting system it came with, then had to buy a longer bolt in order to fit it correctly, as it is quite awkward getting into the rear wing recess to fit it.

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I like the tuna here! https://www.facebook.com/southcoastworkshop

Glad it's working well. Looks like a neat job

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Had a suprising amount of interest in the OEM motorised unit, any guess of what they are worth? £40:00? The antenna has detached from the nylon cord, so I have pulled it out of the motor and wiped it down, going to see if I can reattach it, then might test it to see if it still works.

So just for kicks I weighed it on some digital kitchen scales= 0.993kg

That's quite a lot of weight to carry around just for radio 1,4 and er...Classic fm

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I like the tuna here! https://www.facebook.com/southcoastworkshop

I love the OEM unit, its kinda 80s raison d'etre really, they are under 1kg!

I sold the one off the breaker for 30 quid I full working order.