Aerial repair

[craftyc]

HELP.
my aerial mast has broken so I looked into getting at the aerial. It looks like I need to remove the arch extension then the plastic splash gaurd. The question being how do I get the extention off. I see the bolts and rivets but are there clips behind ? The truck is a 3rd gen.

[dieselboy]

save yourself all the hastle, and go to toyota - get the electric aerial insert ONLY. it cost less than £30.
the way you fit is:
1) turn on radio so motor has moved into the 'up' position
2) unscrew top of base of aerial
3) pull out all bits of aerial left over, use long nose pliers if you cant reach. make sure you get it all
4) get the new insert, put the plastic geared section in, and reach in and turn off radio
5) while motor is turning feed in insert and let the motor grab it and take it in
6) once all the way in, replace the metal cap over the top of the aerial
7) job done have a cuppa
takes less than 10 mins

then next time you go off road, turn your stereo off, or put a cd on. so much cheaper

the above is for my 2nd gen, i expect they are the same

[stormforce]

the forum shop sells them also (if its up and running) and also roughtrax sell them i think

[Gizmo]

save yourself all the hastle, and go to toyota - get the electric aerial insert ONLY. it cost less than £30.
the way you fit is:
1) turn on radio so motor has moved into the 'up' position
2) unscrew top of base of aerial
3) pull out all bits of aerial left over, use long nose pliers if you cant reach. make sure you get it all
4) get the new insert, put the plastic geared section in, and reach in and turn off radio
5) while motor is turning feed in insert and let the motor grab it and take it in
6) once all the way in, replace the metal cap over the top of the aerial
7) job done have a cuppa
takes less than 10 mins

then next time you go off road, turn your stereo off, or put a cd on. so much cheaper

the above is for my 2nd gen, i expect they are the same

is this the same for an aerial thats grating. seems like my aerial will go up and down but doesnt seem to recognise the stop points and still carries on for a little while making a noise as though the cogs still turning

[dieselboy]

dunno... when my aerial stops i hear relays clicking down by my right foot or somewhere.
ive thought about it before, and that may be it works the same sort of way the auto window stops the motor.. may be it senses something in relay when its not moving anymore, and turns itself off. i wouldnt have thought it were your aerial if this were the case..
unless the plastic gears at the end are worn, and its not stopping the motor so it thinks it hasnt gone up all the way?
does it do the same when it goes down as well?

[craftyc]

I have just had a quick shufty at the aerial again and unscrewed the top. The mast was a bit stiff but started to pull out and I stopped there n pushed it back in. Im I right in thinking if I pull this out then feed in the new one (when I get one) as per your spec (Dieselboy) that will be job done?

[hiroler]

dont force it just turn the radio on and it will all come out get the new mast andturn the radio off and it will pull the new mast in to place.

[dieselboy]

I have just had a quick shufty at the aerial again and unscrewed the top. The mast was a bit stiff but started to pull out and I stopped there n pushed it back in. Im I right in thinking if I pull this out then feed in the new one (when I get one) as per your spec (Dieselboy) that will be job done?

yep. just as hiroler said.
once i dont it i couldnt believe how easy it was. i had made all that fuss of posting posts asking about changing the whole thing.
it was so easy to do i should have just done that from the start

reason i think a relay senses the motor aint turning and then stops it all together is because when i was putting it in, i turned off stereo and i didnt get the shaft lined up with the hole quick enough (never been told that before )
but because of that the motor couldnt pull any more in, and i heard a click and then the motor stopped trying. all happened in about a second.

[Tony Kingston]

This is an old thread, but I thought I'd update it a bit

Just over 18 months ago I bought a replacement mast from RT and fitted as described in the posts above, all went well job done in 10 mins.

However, just recently the aerial stopped working again and the top section of the aerial came off, not broken, just popped out of the top of the mast. So thought it was the same problem again and ordered another mast from RT. I have just spent 3 hours this morning trying to get the motor unit to accept the new nylon cogged drive.

Why? Well I ended up dismantling the motor unit to remove the old nylon drive because it had taken all of the nylon drive into the inner workings and it wasn't possible to pull it out any other way. I then put it all back together again but it still wouldn't accept the nylon drive.

So I take it all apart AGAIN and on poking a long thin screwdriver down in to drive unit felt something move, the ferrule that clamps onto the nylon drive and screws into the bottom of the top section of the aerial had broken and jammed in the path of the nylon drive. Having cleared it all regreased AGAIN, resealed AGAIN, reassembled AGAIN, switched off the radio and hey presto the new nylon drive is pulled into the motor unit successfully.

Two things to take from this, unfortunately its not always the nylon that breaks and secondly it looks like the ferrule clamps onto the nylon drive on one side and on the other side screws onto the top section of the mast (might want to check that yours isn't loose).

I'm going to listen to some soothing music now

[brassmonkey001]

then next time you go off road, turn your stereo off, or put a cd on. so much cheaper

the above is for my 2nd gen, i expect they are the same

My aerial stays up whatever the source. I'd much prefer if it only came up when listening to the radio but I haven't sussed out how to get it to do that yet. I know the head unit itself has the facility to send a signal to activate the relay when radio is selected as a source but something isn't wired up quite right. I may have to put a manual isolation switch in to stop the aerial going up when I don't need it to.