Ariel not working.

[GasoLane]

It seems that our power Ariel is now a manual one. I'm assuming this only a cable problem as it went up and down a little before dying, so how much drama can I look forward to in replacing it ?

[Mr Hardware]

Yeah they're not particularly fun. I remember changing one about 7 years ago, it's under the wheel arch cowling. You need 3 very small hands and a large amount of patience.

[GasoLane]

Bugger...But we'll be up your way in Jan/Feb and seeing as your experienced I might just bring it to your place

[Uncle_Ken]

I did my sons and its a pain. Be prepared for some 4 letter words (you know wood, some, duck, %$@k etc)

UK

[Mr Hardware]

"quiet kids, gaso's coming!"

[Jack91]

Mine wasnt hard, just a couple of 10mm bolts. Think I already had the 1/4 panel off though.

[Uncle_Ken]

Originally Posted by DAVO_XR

Mine wasnt hard, just a couple of 10mm bolts. Think I already had the 1/4 panel off though.

Cheater
UK

[XRGhia]

pity that GasOLane's antenna is in the rear quarter (fairlanes have them in the passengers rear quarter next to the boot lid for anyone who didn't know)

[Bushbasher]

Changing the Fairlane aerial is easy enough, just a locking ring on the outside of the panel and a nut down by the motor. You should be able to swap one out in less than 20 minutes. If you can still hear the motor working when you turn on the radio then you should only have to swap out the mast. If you are just going to change the mast I'd have someone there to help cos once you have freed it from the sleeve you need to drive the aerial up and out which is easy enough as it'll drive itself out once you get it moving but putting it back in is a bit tricky as you need to feed the toothed spline back into the body till it finds the sprocket at the bottom of the shaft and then it'll just wind itself back in. You can't be feeding the spline into the sleeve and turning one the radio at the same time. Be sure you get a Fairlane aerial not a falcon one as the 'lane one is thicker and slightly shorter and the falcon one won't fit into the fairlane aerial housing properly, too long and too thin. Also be sure you salvage the brass collar from the base of the mast cos that's what keeps it in once the collar goes back on.
If I were you I'd be looking for a good second hand unit you can pinch the mast from cos new ,the mast is 4x the cost of a falcon one.


Bushbasher

[Uncle_Ken]

Dont for get to buy an LPG aerial mast
UK

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Ken

Dont for get to buy an LPG aerial mast
UK

Did you forget to take your meds again today

[foxtrot3]

Hi. The fairlane antenna is unique to the fairlane(/ltd?) and not serviced by the aftermarket industry. putting in a non genuine antenna throws out the timing and the antenna doesn't go all the way down and get worse every time it goes up and down. The good news is that if your motor still runs you can replace the mast and cord fairly easily, first remove antenna and open the case to remove any of the nylon cord then refit to car and before fitting the top nut turn on the radio to make the motor run in the up direction and then poke the new cord down the hole and turn off the radio which will draw the cord into the antenna, push the mast in to place and refit the nut. 1/2 hour job tops including beer time. Cheers MD.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by xrghiawagon

pity that GasOLane's antenna is in the rear quarter (fairlanes have them in the passengers rear quarter next to the boot lid for anyone who didn't know)

Thanks for that, I was trying to work out where Mr Hardware's Wheel arch came into the problem....but, he is from Qld and they tend to do things differently up there

Originally Posted by Bushbasher

If you can still hear the motor working when you turn on the radio then you should only have to swap out the mast. ...........
If I were you I'd be looking for a good second hand unit you can pinch the mast from cos new ,the mast is 4x the cost of a falcon one.Bushbasher

Yeah, motor still works so it should be just the cable, and the mast if the cable is fixed to it.

Originally Posted by foxtrot3

a non genuine antenna throws out the timing and the antenna doesn't go all the way down and get worse every time it goes up and down.

Sounds like a case of you've 'Been there, done that'

[foxtrot3]

Hi yes wasted a day on a customers car then fixed it in 20 mins with genuine mast from ford. Cheers MD

[Bushbasher]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Yeah, motor still works so it should be just the cable, and the mast if the cable is fixed to it.
Sounds like a case of you've 'Been there, done that'

the cable and mast are 1 unit, you can't separate them. I've also been there and done that. I ended up buying a replacement unit off of ebay but when I fitted it the thing wouldn't drive up or down so I took the mast out and swapped it into my unit. I then pulled apart the replacement to see why it wouldn't work as the motor was trying to go. It turned out that the grease inside the the unit had dried up and the cord was binding and jambing inside and after pulling the casing apart it was obvious that it wasn't rebuildable. I tell you this because it sounds like you may have the same issue if the motor is still working but the aerial won't go. If it's dried out and jammed then stripped the teeth from the cord, just feeding a new cord in, even well greased, may not fix the problem cos there'll be broken teeth floating around in there that'll just jamb up the new cord and you'll be back where you started. When you go looking for a replacement unit, make sure it's a good working unit if you go s/h in case you need to swap out the whole thing. In either case, make sure you grease up the cord well before you finish the job because all of those units are now 10 years old and the grease is going to be sad no matter what.


Bushbasher