Central Valley Classic Cars

The auto extending & retracting antenna mast of the XK8 had long been gone. I’m not sure what I want to do about it long term, but for now I’ve rid myself of the faint but annoying sound of the motor running every time the stereo comes on or is shut off.

So, I actually did this some time ago. I even started the article back at that time. But life then suddenly got very busy with stuff I just had to prioritize over blogging. But thankfully my notes look good enough to pull something worth sharing out.

The previous owner had some bizarre story about how the antenna was lost; so strange I had no experience to associate it with and am unable to recall it, but it featured a seagull. It probably just got whacked off in one of those gas station car washes while the driver cruised the XK8 through with the stereo on. I’ve been told by a reliable source that this is how most of them bite it.

I’m considering options for the official fix. I’m not convinced I want to restore it to the factory spec. The XK8 is pretty timeless apart from this holdover from the eighties (yeah, it was probably a pretty cool gadget on an XJS, but just plain out of place on the XK). I’d rather have something more subtle, something low profile or possibly even hidden, but that will likely take some custom work – not just some off the shelf bolt on. So that is for another day… probably one of the days the paint and body work is done… sometime in the unforeseeable future.

The process of removing the antenna motor was fairly straight forward and simple, but I wouldn’t have wanted to guess where the detachment points were or where the antenna feed was best unhooked without a little guidance. That guidance was easily found with my ALLDATA Do It Yourself account. If you don’t have a subscription for your vehicle’s data you should really consider it. It’s reasonably priced (though it has recently increased to $27 a year for one car), and has very helpful information about the mechanics of your car and how to perform repairs. Even though most work I want done by experienced hands, the engineer in me appreciates being able to find the schematics that correspond to the work to be done. And, sometimes, like in this case, I find it easy enough to actually do it myself.

For more thoughts on doing it yourself check out DIY in the 21st Century.

I was ever so slightly disappointed at how light the detached antenna motor was in my hand. For those of you who like your extending and retracting antenna, this is a good thing. It’s really not adding any noteworthy weight to your car. I was kinda hoping it would be a first step in lightening my car.

When I talk to various experts about advances in car performance and efficiency, they often reference the trade-offs of new technology. New technology often means a more efficient component, but also mean more components expected and required. The most egregious of these, in my humble opinion, are the those that provide the creature comforts that define a luxury car and eventually become expected in all new cars. Now, don’t get me wrong, living in the central valley of California, where summer temperatures over 110° F are not uncommon, I do have an appreciation of air conditioning. But there’s a lot of powered luxury in the Jag I really don’t need. Now, I’m not going to go out of my way to strip these things out to lighten the car down to a chassis, engine and wheels, but the idea of dropping this or that and living without is inviting.

But the antenna motor’s absence is a very small drop in the weight reduction bucket. The upside to this was that I didn’t need to find anything in the front of the car to remove to maintain the vehicles balance.

It should be noted that I lost all radio reception once I detached the antenna lead. This surprised me for two reasons:

1. the reception was acceptable without a working antenna on the exterior of the car; as you can see from the pictures, there was no antenna to raise when the motor kicked in, and there as no longer a leader coiled in the motor either; but clearly the in the motor or its internal wiring was providing what reception there was.
2. last time I examined a car radio system, the FM and AM receivers where separate and designed differently in correspondence to the physics of the different technologies; disconnecting the external antenna only noticeably impacted FM reception, but not AM reception; but both were affected by disconnecting the motor… I haven’t heard an understandable sound from either FM or AM since doing so.

The absence of radio is a non-issue to me as I very rarely listen to anything other than the CD changer. I have considered doing an iPod integration, the easiest of which would be via a radio integration like provided by an iTrip. I’m not sure if antenna motor absence would help this because it would eliminated interference from radio stations or if will make it impossible because the is inadequate signal reception now. I’ll let you know when I find out.