Hi All, I'm wondering if someone can help me, I bought what I thought was an apples to apples replacement power antenna for my 1981 Corvette, the problem is the new one has different color code wires one very short black, a red and a blue my connector has a green, a white and a grey, can I connect to those or do I need to by pass and run the wires all the way to the radio?

Thanks
Encore

 

You'll need to determine the correlation between the new colors and the old ones.

I suspect one is ground, one is 12V, and one is the signal from the radio to raise/lower the antenna.

You'll need to contact the vendor of your new one and find out what's what. Then use a VOM to check what the wires in your car are.

 

Thanks Shark, I know the aftermarket antenna has the red wire constant 12v blue wire is switch 12v, I was kind of hoping someone knew the way to hook up to the old connector or even if it's possible?

Encore

 

If the old connector is female, you might be able to find male crimp-ons that will work.

 

I'm thinking I need to disconnect the old power antenna relay, because the new antenna has it own?

Next step fixed antenna
Encore

 

What was the next step?

 

Yeah I didn't word that very well Shark, my point was that after I investigate by passing the cars original relay, if I couldn't figure it out I was going to go to a fixed non power antenna!
Hehehe! I'm pretty sure I have it figured out though. I'll try it over the weekend.

Encore

 

Ok so I finally figured out how to wire in my power antenna on my 81, I needed to by pass the original relay because the new power antennas have them built in now. I'm kind of disappointed the original wiring wasn't apples to apples because the way Eckler presents it,
It should have been! Anyway water under the bridge now. BTW thanks to the forum for information that helped sort it out!

Encore

 

Thanks for reporting back. May help someone else in the future.

 

For others reading this post that would prefer to keep the original factory power antenna, and not have to mess around with wiring modifications, you can purchase a power antenna mast rebuild kit which I did and it works amazing. It took me two hours (it would probably take me 30 minutes the second time including R&R'ing the antenna now that I know what to do. If you are of average mechanical ability it is very straightforward). Take it out (having a bright shop light up there helped a lot), which you have no choice but to do anyway if you're replacing it, then follow the repair instructions that come with the kit. I found my kit on ebay but most of the C3 parts suppliers have them for around $30. The only tricky part - and it turned out that it was not tricky, just my first time - is drilling out the rivets with an ordinary drill/bit. After you're all done, refasten the housing with 5 short bolts/nuts of your selection from any hardware store. I used stainless steel in case it ever fails again some decade because I never plan to sell my car. Don't over tighten because the housing looks like a metal alloy but it is automotive-grade black plastic. If you search Google you will find posts/instructions. Before putting it all together I reloaded the push/pull gear mechanism with silicone grease. Some say they use Vaseline. I also spray painted the black plastic housing a silver color to help reflect a bit of the heat that comes up from the road and exhaust and the reason that they all eventually fail. Regardless, after putting it all together it worked the first time I turned on the key and radio. And, I suspect, being OE it will last longer than anything sourced from Asia, nor will you have to change antenna leads as is sometimes the case when changing antennas. It is a long antenna lead from the back. The reason the antenna is in the back is because GM could not get rid of the spark plug ignition noise for AM radio stations if the antenna was right next to the engine because a fiberglass body is useless for deflecting ignition noise according to the GM radio engineer I spoke with once. Good luck.
Dave