How to fix a stuck antenna motor on a 1984 buick LeSabre that keeps running and runs the battery down.
Car is in pretty good shape- only 85K miles. Overhaul of A/C, etc. last year. Antenna motor is now stuck and keeps running even when engine off, which runs the battery down. Don't really need the radio or antenna. How to disable the antenna motor? Pulled the radio fuse, but that didn't work. Pulled the dome light fuse, but that didn't work. Have applied some WD-40 in case it gets working again. Will have to jump start the car tomorrow and charge up the battery again, but don't know how to get at the little motor or its control to disable it.
pull the fuse....have to research which one fer ye~
okay this is from an 1987 Buick grand national but the power antenna is the same...fuse 19 I think according to this diagram~
yes a whole lot of other stuff will go down too~ you're right...fish around for the electrical connector and disconnect it....other than servicing the switch who's cam has stopped working...disconnect the thing~
Thank you. Will go fishing for the right wire or connector tomorrow. Tonight I just have the battery disconnected. I could pull that fuse because I may not need all that other stuff, but disconnecting would be a more elegant fix.
sweet~!
The feed for the antenna is off the back of the radio. Eventually they all do this, and it can burn out the motor. A buddy of mine fixed that problem by putting a switch in line so it only goes up and down when he wants it to.
Thanks to all! I jump-started the '84 LeSabre, then backed it out of the garage to see better. I pulled the fuse marked Cig, which stopped the antenna motor from running down the battery again. My son came by after I recharged the battery some more. I put the fuse back again. He looked under the hood and pulled a likely-looking junction having 3 wires near the antenna and the grinding sound stopped. Eureka! It all helped. Thanks again.
antenna internal cable broken causing antenna to run all the time
As noted above....when the plastic cord breaks, the motor keeps running. The plastic cord is attached to the top section of the antenna and the DC motor runs in both directions...raising the antenna or lowering it....when the cord breaks, the UP and DOWN shut off contact do not work and the motor continues to run. Unplugging the 3 wire cable going to the antenna takes 12v away from the motor and it cannot run.
Thank you for your answer. I think I did the right thing. I don't really need the antenna down, so I pulled the plug on the motor, so the antenna stays up and the radio still works. Fixing it back to original condition on a car 32 years old is too much hassle. It is still in good shape at 87K miles. (We called it the "cream puff." I can't sell it to a dealer, so am content just using it as a backup.
