My Carlton has an electric arial. Probably my favourite part of the car (c:
At 11 years old, not all of the arial pops out all of the time anymore. I was wondering what the best thing to lubricate it with is. WD40, the bodgers choice likes to stick to things and just make the situation worse, also tends to end up all over the bodywork.
Anyone got any reccomendations? Is there special power arial lubricant I can buy, or shall I just resort to my old friend Mr Vaseline?
Warmest Regards Douglas
Any normal sort of lubricant is only a sort term fix as dirt sticks to it and jams the tower.
It shouldn't need any lubrication at all - there is sufficient clearance between sections. Simply keep it clean. If you can stop it half way up, you can work the sections up and down to clean them - something like WD40 is ok for this to just loosen the dirt, but clean it off afterwards.
If it still jams, chances are it's bent in some way.
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I was told, when washing the car, extend the arial afterwards. dry it, spray with WD 40 (if a lot of crap is stuck to it), wipe of the excess, and then wipe over with a rag with a little engine oil on. Dirt will stick to it, but do it regular, and it shouldn't harden, and will work smoother between cleans.
Mine started sticking on the TI. So I cleaned it all up, and then put some normal 3in1 oil on it, and worked it up and down a few times. That was a few months ago, and it's been fine since.
Wouldn't you be better off with something like IPA for cleaning gunge off it, then there's nothing left for the gunge to stick to?
That would work - or anything to dissolve the mixture of old oil and dirt. If you must try lubricant, use a dry type - even try rubbing with a soft pencil.
"Dave Plowman" wrote
Soft pencil - genius - and thanks.
I spent a while today unjamming it (its huge!), seemed to respond to just having dried crap scraped off and being rubbed. If only women were this simple .
It occurred to me today some sort of dry lubricant was the best plan and that I once had some powdered graphite for locks, worked a treat and didnt leave anything worth worrying about on car paintwork.
Douglas
"Doki" wrote
What is this IPA you speak of?
Only IPA I can think of comes in pints from a tap on a bar. Never thought much of it to drink, to the extent I probably wouldnt rub my arial with it either. (c:
Douglas
Isopropylalcohol. You can get it in spray cans from maplins etc for cleaning tape heads and getting grease off things. I think it's the same thing as Denatured alcohol.
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