loose aerial

[Lozza74]

Im sure Ive seen a post on this topic recently, but as always I cant find it now.

The aerial in my car has gone floppy, in that the part that can be tilted up and down slowly droops down until it is lying along the roof.
Does anyone know if the hinge is actually a bolt that can be tightened up? there seems to be some sort of plug/grommet one one side. Before I go digging around near the hinge area can anyone tell be if this is actually a grommet hiding a bolt, or if im about to do irreparable damage to the aerial.

Thanks!
Richard

[Pete Boole]

The aerial part itself is detachable so it must be hiding some sort of fixing.

Pete

[JB455]

Yes, there is a screw in there. I've loosened mine to lower it a bit to fit under my GTO on the lift above.

[Lozza74]

I felt brave yesterday so started to remove the Aerial. It turns out that what I thought was a cover bung is in fact a bolt head.
I used a left handed drill bits and started to try to drill out the bung/bolt. After a little while the bolt actually came undone - which is actually what I had hoped, hence using left handed bits.
These are the components that hold the two parts of the aerial together.



As you can see the spring that keeps the joint tensioned is rusty, as is the threaded part of the bolt.
The 'nut' part of the fitting is M5, so I replaced the bolt with a stainless M5 cap headed bolt, reusing the original spring and nut.I covered everything in copper grease in an attempt to prevent it seizing again.

These are the parts I used to replace the original bolt. Only the bolt and washers are new.