E30 power antenna - replace mast, or entire assembly?

[bobdavisnpf]

While driving my 1989 E30 vert around the other day, I turned on the stereo and my antenna mast got pushed out of its assembly and was flopping around by its toothed nylon lead. I see BMW replacement masts are available, but when I opened up the assembly I found no leftover broken-off nylon lead inside. That leaves me thinking - would replacing the wand assembly actually fix it? Seems like there must be something else wrong, and the replacement might get pushed all the way out too.

When I turn on the stereo with the antenna (sans mast) in place, I hear its motor run for about 8 seconds, then stop. When I turn the stereo off, I hear it run again for 8 sec. It seems longer than before: it used to take maybe 5 sec to put the antenna up or down.

The overall power antenna assembly has the original BMW part sticker on it, and the Hirschmann logo embossed in its plastic cover.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

It's up to you. You can open it up and try to fix it with any available parts. If you can't find the right bits, just throw it out and either replace with another known working unit or change to a non electric antenna.

Cheers, Dennis!

[MarcoZandrini]

What has likely happened is the antenna mast's "nut" came loose or is stripped. Once the mast is properly inserted into the antenna body the antenna's nut screws into the antenna body. Check the threads in the antenna body. You can buy a new antenna mast and nut.

The antenna body appears to be operating properly.