My antenna will go all the way up and down if I assist it, but if left to its own devices it can't completely operate. With the manual assist, it appears to just be binding in a few places, and I was wondering if I can put Miracle Oil or TriFlow or something of that ilk on it to make it work better?
thx,
-tom!
You can try lubing it. An oil type is OK to free it up, then I would use a thin coat of some white lithium grease. If this is the OEM Hirschman type antenna, I'd remove it and take the cover off. You'll be able to inspect the drive mechanism. They use a tension rolller to push the plastic drive cable against the drive wheel. This area gets rust, corrosion, etc and could need freeing up and lube.
If this is an old mast, it's also likely it's just shot. The plastic cable wears out. Replacement masts are available on Ebay.
Use WD40 to clean up the antenna... it is the road gunks that the antenna collected and begin to bind the antenna.
Don't use any grease... will burn out the motor.
WD40 IS grease in a solvent carrier. You never want to use this on an antenna. The correct thing to use is silicone, per the manufacturor of the antennas recommendation:
oh, come on Richard, I've been using WD40 for years to clean off the accumulated grime on the mast. No problems, the oil left behind is minimal
cheers, guenter
I've had 26 years experience using WD40 and/or lithium grease and nothing bad has happened yet, I've only replaced one mast, and the rest of the mechanism is original. IMO, any reasonable lubricant will work fine.
Well, you can disagree all you want. I'm just telling you what Hirschman says.
I guess minimal oil over time builds up.
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