I installed a new antenna I bought on ebay that's an exact duplicate of what mazda sells as far as I can tell, and the guy advertised it as a 2nd gen rx7 mast. neways, it works beutifully but the motor's clutch clicks twice each time it comes down. my guess is the retracting line is a little shorter than the motor was made for. oh yeah, the antenna fully retracted sits a 1/2 inch inside the mount, which seems wierd to me but since my first antenna couldn't be retracted I have way of knowing if this is right.

will this uneeded stress on my motor break something? or does everyone's do this?

 

come on, atleast answer if our cars do this stock.

 

I have the factory unit on mine ('88) and it also clicks twice going up or down, but the tip of the mast sits flush with the top of the mount.

 

if the mast is going into the body of the power ant, the it is the wrong mast, or it is improperly installed.

Did you reuse the old mast sleave or use the one the new mast came with?

 

No, it won't hurt anything.
The "clicking" is the motor trying to retract the antenna mast all the way down.
There is a current circuit that shuts it off when it does this, but it takes a few times of the antenna to click to trigger this circuit.

I agree with Icemark, that crap is NOT identical to the Mazda unit, but it should still work as intended - as a radio antenna.

That's what you get for getting cheap and not getting a proper Mazda OEM part for replacement.
Sheez, this **** is not over $50 from the Mazda dealer.
Buying cheap **** will almost always bite you in the ***.
"You get what you pay for."


-Ted

 

I used the new sleave, would using the old sleave make a difference? how could I install it wrong?

I simply held the winding part in the motor as far down as it would go and then had my friend turn on the radio.

paying 15$ instead of 50$ for a mast that sits a cm below the car frame is definetly worth the money difference.

 

you say that like 35 bucks is a lot of money.


*sob sob*

dammit i know how it feels man.
Matt