electric radio aerial
 

The electric aerial on my 440 has given up the ghost. Having dismantled it I found the nylon toothed band was broken and irrepairable. I have seen a number of aerials for sale on the internet and wonder if anyone out there has tried fitting one. There are some which look similar and described as universal, but without trying it it is difficult to Know whether there are any snags. Also on the existing one there seems to be a unit fitted on the mast between the incoming wires and the actual aerial connections which is not on any of the ones I have viewed. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

do you mean the aerial itself with the band attached to end of it?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-440-...-/400123474201

http://www.partsforvolvosonline.com/...oducts_id=5896

you dont really want to go for the univeral fit ones from autoleads, i have fitted a universal fit unit and it is not terribly great,

the mast is too tall for the old bodywork fittings, the thing is wider and thusly harder to fit, and there is some wire cutting involved because they supply blue, red black and the leads on ours are multi coloured. i can post a picture of the setup if you wish, i think the replacement mast is the best way to go as suggested by cookie.

I couldnt see how to get to the teethed section, how did you do it? i must be missing something simple...

can't remember how I did it, but when I had the 460, I stripped and cleaned, as was slow, and needed help, was just gummed up with hard gunge and grease, good clean and regreased, and ran like a dream, wasn't hard to dismantle

fitting a non standard electric aerial to an older car always gives grief, only time I would ever bother with a retrofit aerial is when removing manual aerial, and fitting at same time as fitting a non origional stereo.

radio aerial
 

Thanks for the replies. I got over the problem by an ingenious method!
There is a small disc geared to the motor which has two insulated cutouts. These tell the aerial when to stop either in the up or down position. As it was only the last few inches of the flexible rack that was broken off. I took the thing apart and put a small bit of insulating tape next to one of the cutouts. This had the effect of stopping the aerial going to its full height and the rack did not run off the end. So far the repair has been successful. I've put all this in case anyone else has a similar problem!
If you want to get at the toothed section this is done by removing the large round cover which is held by a central nut and washer, but be careful. Under this is a loose round holder for the coiled rack. Lifting this will release the rack which is like a coiled spring and covered with grease! Good luck.