REPAIRS PAGE 31
AERIAL REPLACEMENT
*Courtesy of Kerry Wood from mr2faq.com and Jack7957 from the MR2 message board
You can buy a replacement unit from Autozone for around $45. This is a quick write up on changing the aerial. It takes less than an hour to do the swap.
1) Remove front and rear boot liner. Remove drivers side boot liner. Behind this is the aerial and related operating motor. There is a cad plated bracket that holds the body of the aerial motor in place - either 2 or 3 10mm bolts. Leave these in place for the moment. Remove the castle nut on the aerial extension at the exterior of the rear wing. The castle nut can be removed with a pair of thin nose pliers forced into the 2 holes on the castle nut. Once the nut is loose, screw it out by hand and then remove plastic spacer and neoprene gasket.
2) Once the castle nut is removed, remove electrical connector to motor and remove aerial lead. There may be a drain tube attached to the bottom of the motor body that exits at the bottom of the wing well. If so, remove it from the motor body. Remove previously mentioned 10mm mounting bolts. Drop aerial and motor body so extension clears inside of the wing, then rotate assembly out. I forget what holds the bracket in place, but you can easily see that once the motor is out. Remove that and its fasteners. You can now get to the intake plumbing, but there isn't any real reason to remove it, unless you're getting rid of a few ounces of weight.
3) Cut the wiring harness off the old aerial. You'll be wiring this up to the new aerial, makes it easy to install. Connect the wires from the new aerial to the appropriate wires on the Aerial connector diagram below. Please note the voltages are using the standard radio/cassette.
3) Mount the new aerial. They include a couple different angled top mount pieces, pick the appropriate one that closely matches the curve of the car.
4) Replace the drain tube. The old aerial had two drain holes, the new one only has one. I got this from my local Home Depot. I don't remember what size, just take the old one in and ask them to measure/compare for what you need. I did need to heat up one end to get it onto the bottom of the new aerial.
