67 antenna lead

[Kevin M.]

I'm trying to get my radio functioning, it came down to the antenna lead. I ordered a new one just plugged it in without installing it and it did the trick. Now when I tried disassembling the old one I had to tear it apart leaving the silver collar corroded into the base itself. I will look for a used base at my local junk yard.
Looking at the new lead and old one it would seem that the only part that went bad is the connector at the antenna base. I do a lot of cable splicing in my job and was wondering if someone sells the connector by itself. Or a male and female radio side connector so I could use the original cable and the new connector put together with a male female connection. The reason I ask I understand it very hard to pull a new lead through the old ones path without tearing up original carpet, I won't do that. Any leads on these connectors would be appreciated. I will also visit the junkyard and experiment with examples from other GM cars to see if I can use parts from an original set up to accomplish the above.

Kevin

[Jack H.]

Re: 67 antenna lead

(1) You don't have to 'tear up' the carpet to R&R the antenna lead-in wire. It's simply a matter of pulling the sill plate and gently curling back the carpet to gain access to the lead-in wire routing path. Our interior guy at the shop can do the swap out in 30-minutes flat (but he's had experience).

(2) The center conductor in the antenna lead-in wire is VERY small (on the order of a human strand of hair). If it fatigue fractures, because it's been bent at right angle excessively, it's simply old, Etc. you can wind up with a Jeckyl/Hyde syndrome (sometimes it works other times it open circuits).

(3) The bannana jack that plugs into the radio chassis is a primary suspect. Here the lead-in cable makes a rather tight bend from running across the instrument panel to pointing straight rearward to enter the radio's receptical. This is quite often where the center conductor fatigue factures....

(4) Replacement bannana jacks are 'off-the-shelf' at Radio Shack and other electronic shops, BUT.... Cutting off the old jack and soldering on a fresh, new one AND getting the braided shielding of the wire's sheath to make good, full circumferential contact with to the bananna jack's body WITHOUT allow the center conductor any creepage distance to short isn't as simple as some might think.

(5) My take is: you've properly fault isolated your radio reception problems to the lead-in wire. You've got a professional made replacement lead-in wire that you KNOW works well. Why not bite the bullet and replace the old, worn, original cable with a fresh, new one instead of 'dinking' around trying to save your original lead-in cable that may have MORE THAN ONE fault/weak point?

[Kevin M.]

Re: 67 antenna lead

Jack,

You made a very good point, I install the replacement and go form there, thanks.

Kevin