I orderd a stationary antenna from crutchfield and they sent me a power antenna, which is kinda cool. But my problem is I dont know from what power source I am supossed to take it from? I know the blue wire goes to the amp/antenna turn on wire on the back of the stereo. The black goes to the ground and big one is just the antenna wire, but the red is the powersource.

I found one wireing diagram saying I could take from the CIG/Stereo 15A lead, the ECU/Ignition 15A lead or the 20A dome lead. What would be easiest?

As of now I think i will split the cigarette lighter wire and use that one, but if anyone else knows better lemme know.

Thanks,
AK

 

Any source will work. Just sort of depends on how/when you want the antenna to be able to retract or extend. In my VW, I wired the power antenna 12V lead to a constant power source. This way if I shut off the engine the antenna will contnue to retract by itself rather than having to sit there with the key in the ACC position until it goes down.

 

AK,

power antennas fail. i'd just get crutchfield to send you the non motorized one

bob

 

True, I find they last maybe 5-10 years. But manual antennas fail too. Like when some joker snaps yours off in the grocery store parking lot, or when you are off-roading and forget to lower it. A lot easier to flip the switch to lower it than to hop out and run around the other side of the truck.

 

hehe, good point, but that's not failure. thats pure vandalism!

roger, can 1st gen masts be lowered by a switch? haven't been in a 1st gen in a loooong time.

bob

 

You bet, the 1st gens have a manual up/down switch (like the power windows). So you can raise or lower the antenna any amount you want and do that independent of the radio. Nice when you hit the trail and flip over to a CD, you can then lower the antenna. All the other automatic antennas I have had that are controlled off of the radio go up when you turn on the radio, even if listening to a tape or CD.

 

roger,

pretty nifty. i guess that's when the 4runner design team was composed of actual off-roaders who found value in that feature as opposed to the soccer-mom driven designs teams as of late

bob

 

yea so i got that switch but the previous owner installed a stationary one instead. I dont see any of the previous wires from the old antenna, just the switch to put it up and down, and i dont know how to link this up. But yea one of my friends tried to do one of those hood slides across the front, bad idea, and the stud just snapped and i coudnt get it out.

Still stuck on the red wire.

What fuse was used for the original power antenna?

 

The manual antenna from Crutchfield DOES fail. I am on #2 from Crutchfield in the less than a year, it broke where the mast attaches to the base after about 2 months.

However their customer service is good and they just sent me a new one without having to send the old one back.

I just found a used power antenna (Toyota) from the junkyard and am going to reinstall a power antenna.

If anyone is in the market for a manual one, I have a brand new one in the box still from Crutchfield for 4Runner 85-89.

 

So to answer my own question, I shoud have used the dome light or some other lead that has constant power going to it. When I turn the car off the radio goes off, but the antenna does not go down because I used the cigarette lighter power instead.

 

Yep, if you want the antenna to go down by itself when you shut off the engine, you'll need to power the antenna motor from something that is on all the time, dome light would be one option.

 

So on your original power antenna switch, can you use that when the car is turned off, or just when it is on?

 

The one on m7 '85 works in ACC or ON positions of the key. Probably would be fairly easy to move the relay power over to a constant power source if you wanted it to work all the time.