Hey guys, new to the forum and I figured I would jump right in with a tech question, I just changed out the radio in a 92 C4 vette, and when you do so in that car you have to bypass the tunerpack under the dash where the glove box would be if it had one.
to make a long story short. when I energize the antenna lead it blows the courtesy lamp fuse on the fuse panel located on the passenger side of the car.
Back tracking..I plugged everything back in the way it was and put the factory radio back in and when I turn the factory radio on the antenna goes up about a quarter inch then the same fuse blows.
anyone come across this before?
I found the relay in the back of the car for the lights and the antenna, but the antenna seems to work differently than most. Its a 3 wire system. you give it 12 volts and ground one way and it goes up...you switch the 12 and ground wires and reverse the polarity and it goes down. I tried using relays to duplicate this but it appears that if the antenna stays energized for more than a few seconds in either direction then it stops working all together.

any help would be appreciated.


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I have an aftermarket stereo but mine does not do that. My antennae motor is shot and does not go up but I get great reception with out. I like the looks of it better with the thing down anyway.

 

I figured out that the antenna in the C4 vette works like a power doorlock actuator. It has to see power and ground one way to go up and it has to see it reversed to go back down. unfortunatly it cannot be configured to work with an aftermarket radio properly since the remote/ antenna lead keeps blowing the courtesy light fuse. I found the relay for the antenna and lights in the back hatch area under the panel where the latch for the hatch is. its a 3 wire white plug with a white, gray and green wire. I had to put a momentary switch on it to make it work. It was either that or install a new aftermarket antenna that works differently. since its such a pain to install the new antenna in these cars my customer opted for the switch


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Do you listen only to local broadcasts? Have you tried picking up FM from the next town over?

I just lost the last 4 inches of retraction at power off, and this sounds interesting - before I attempt full repair...