The antenna motor died in our 94 Accord and has left the antenna mast in the fully UP position. We'd rather not pay $$$ to replace that kind of thing, especially since the radio reception is great as is and the car has a 6-CD changer installed anyway. But we would like to be able to occasionally run the car through a carwash (handwashing every time there's spring grime gets old!) without bending/breaking the antenna mast in the process.

Is it possible to just manually push the mast down into the socket and then pull it back out after a carwash? Opinions I've gotten seem to differ: some say that would either bend/break the mast or get the mast permanently stuck in the DOWN position (because of some kind of "teeth" in the motor assembly), but others think it's okay. I don't want to wipe out the radio reception doing this experiment, so if anyone has good info on this I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

 

You cannot manually push down a power antenna. There ia a plastic lead on it with teeth that engage a gear in the motor unit.
I would guess that the aftermarket CD unit has no power lead for the antenna unit?
The only thing that would answer your question , get a manual unit from a DX model, and swap out your power unit
Here's a link so you can see how the unit is removed;

http://www.freewebs.com/hondad...a.htm

 

i got the same prob only i already replaced it once so i decided to go with a glass mount one instead. heres the link:

http://www.scosche.com/product.../1052

 

Thanks for the replies. That's what I was afraid of--no way to push the mast down. I don't want to replace the motor so the mast retracts just for the convenience of going through carwashes! I'll probably just wait until the mast breaks or bends and then get the glass mount antenna you recommend at scosche.

Thanks again!

 

Look into replacing it with a 90ish integra power anteanna unit... Parts guy at my dealership was just telling me that the 94 accord unit is about x3 more expensive than the 90 integra and its the same damn part slightly diff. part number. Look into it, he didn't get too specific with me

 

Well to tell you the truth there's an antenna kit at advance auto parts that can be placed in the factory hole and fits nicely ... I believe that it costs around $25... On my 1991 Honda Accord EX, I had the same problem and I purchased this kit and it works great, plus it's flexible and comes with a lifetime warranty...

 

Great info if we ever want to get a new power unit! Thanks a lot--I'd never have guess an Integra part would be so much cheaper.

 

That's cool, and it's another thing for us to think about if we end up having to replace the mast if/when it breaks. Thanks for the tip!

 

Well, what I did to my ex's car was pull the antenna apart as if I was replacing it. Then, within the antenna unit, there is the plastic strip which allows the motor to push it up and pull it down. I full retracted the antenna mast and cut off the strip. With this, I can pull up or push down the antenna mast manually whenever I want to go into a car wash. it works well, and it stays up.

For my car, My mast is already broken off, but I stuck it back in the hole. Whenever I am going into a car wash, I just pull it out and throw it in my car. When I come out, I just stick it back in. I have had it this way since I owned my car in 2002, and it has never fell out.

 

Do you happen to remember the model number of the replacement you found at Advance Auto Parts? Their on-line catalog lists around 150 items under the "universal antenna" category. Thanks.

 

There IS an easy way to convert the automatic antenna mast... I did it myself in my 95 Accord and it worked just fine for about 4 years (til my memory failed me at the carwash... ugh). Use the normal procedure to remove the antenna mast. Once removed, colapse the atenna into itself... this will expose all of the gear cable. Then just cut all of the cable off. Viola -- you now have a manual mast. You might notice that it takes a bit of force when extending the re-installed mast to get it all to hold without falling in on itself -- just give it a tug at each junction. Again, this worked for me for almost 4 years. After I finally broke it at the auto car wash, I just replaced the entire mech with the DX manual for about $40 -- 2004 dollars, though.