New Antenna wont work

[Alan2fast]

Hey every one go my factory antenna did not have. Mast when i got the car so i bought a new groove shark antenna. Problem is that it wont work with the factory radio toggle switch. So i got another toggle switch and i just cant get it to work im not sure how to wire it to the new toggle switch.

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[sweatybetty]

huh??

[Alan2fast]

How many amp's should the switch be?

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[Mikes Z car]

More information would help.  I believe the original switch is a single pole double throw momentary switch center off (spring loaded to the center off position).  Some of that may be redundant not sure of exact proper terminology.  Do you have a picture of the antenna mast that you installed?   

[Hardway]

I don't see where Groove Shark sells new power antenna's.  Did you buy a replacement mast for yours and install it? Mike is right, the factory switch does not work like the after market switches that comes with most power antennas.  I am knee deep in replacing mine on my '71 240z.  More info and pictures on exactly what you have will help in being able to provide suggestions on what to do next.

[Alan2fast]

I got the new one on ebay. I got it working but i ripped the chip out and wired it directly to the motor.

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[Hardway]

Which one did you buy on eBay?  I see a lot of $20 power antennas and they easily go up to $30, $40, $50, and beyond.

[Alan2fast]

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[Alan2fast]

That is the one i got it cost me 65 dollars. Its not bad same size and design as the oem.

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[Jehannum]

If you want a new-design antenna to work with the switch, you'll need to add a diode between the blue and red wires, then connect the hot-when-up wire to the blue wire, and hot-when-down wire to the red wire on the antenna.

My schematic skills are rusty, but this shows what you'll need to do to make it work with the switch: both blue and red need power to go up, and only red needs power to go down.  The way I accomplished that was to put a diode in between the blue and red leads.  You'll need a fairly beefy diode to make this work.  I just went to Radio Shack and found a big rectifier diode that was something like 400V@5A rating.

Your mileage may vary, but I found that the L/R wire was hot when I pushed the switch "up", and the L/W wire was hot when I pushed the switch "down".

Edited December 15, 2016 by Jehannum

[TomoHawk]

He's right.  You can't just hook up a switched power wire to one of the new automatic powered antennas.  You can use the factory-style antenna switch, but with the modification as indicated.  I used a micro size DPDT rocker switch on my antenna, but I first rebuilt the motor with new brushes.