New antenna installation problems

[Stainless]

My automatic antenna hasn't worked since I bought it over a year ago. I ordered a Legacy LN46 replacement on ebay:
10364

When I went to remove the old antenna, I noticed that there were four wires coming off of it: red, yellow, brown, and white:
10365

The yellow, brown, and white wires all go to this relay. This relay has two wires coming off the other end: red and green. I removed the relay for a better picture:
10366

The red and green wires coming off of the relay go back along the rear shelf and the green wire connects to a white wire while the red wire seems continuous:
10367

The new Legacy antenna has three wires coming off of it: red, green, and black. I am confident that the black wire is the ground wire.
10368

From what I read on this thread, http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?423-Replacing-Rear-Power-Antenna&highlight=replace+antenna I understood that I should bypass the relay that the yellow, brown, and white wire connect to and hook the new green and red wires from the Legacy antenna into the green and red wires that feed into the relay.

That is what I did. I fed the new green and red wire from the Legacy antenna into the rear shelf, cut the green and red wires from the relay and hooked them up to the green and red wires from the new antenna. I used a good ground at the back of the pontoon that I use for other things, so that should be good. The antenna does not extend when I turn the radio on. I am not confident that I have it wired properly. How do I hook this up to extend when the radio is turned on?

The previous owner also installed a Kenwood DVD deck that has a mini computer in the storage compartment, so I don't know if this procedure is going to be more complicated due to the deck not being very typical. Hopefully that doesn't have anything to do with this.

[Kenny_Z]

I think I installed that exact same antenna but got it from autozone. I can take pictures tomorrow if it stops raining. I can not remember the wiring, it's been awhile.

Before I installed my antenna I hooked the ground and motor leads to a battery just to make sure it worked. I don't know about the Kenwood deck but I think the majority of aftermarket decks come with power antenna hookups so you should be good there.

[mluder]

I agree - Sounds like you hooked it up correctly.

Best way to test woud be to connect the motor drive drectly to the battery to see if it functions at all. Then you can focus on why the radio isn't triggering the antenna.

Cheers.
Steve

[dmc6960]

That new antenna has a built in relay. You can ditch the original. Here is how you need to wire it....

Black to ground, you have that covered already.

Red wire goes directly to the door lock breaker. Get a small inline fuse on it at that spot too.

Green wire goes strait to the radio. If you have an aftermarket radio, odds are it has an output specifically to signal an antenna to raise or lower. I don't recall if this is a ground signal or a 12v signal though. Whatever it is you would hook it strait to the green wire of the antenna. If you have an original radio I'm unsure how it triggers the antenna, perhaps just the accessory relay. In that case depending on the signal needs of the antenna (12v or GND) you may still need the original DMC antenna relay.

It's all so much easier with an aftermarket radio.

[Kenny_Z]

The pictures I have just make no sense. I couldn't get a good angle inside the pontoon and fishing my phone out when I dropped it was fun. :umm:

It is wired exactly as Dmc6960 said above. Except I don't have an inline fuse. That will have to be resolved tomorrow.

[Stainless]

I agree - Sounds like you hooked it up correctly.

Best way to test woud be to connect the motor drive drectly to the battery to see if it functions at all. Then you can focus on why the radio isn't triggering the antenna.

Cheers.
Steve

I'm going to take another crack at this tonight if I have time.

To trigger the antenna manually, I assume I hook the negative black wire from the antenna to the negative terminal and the red wire to the positive. Does this make the antenna extend, or do I need to do something with the green wire as well in order to get it to work? Also, once the antenna extends, how do I get it to go back so that I can install it without the antenna extended?

[Stainless]

To trigger the antenna manually, I assume I hook the negative black wire from the antenna to the negative terminal and the red wire to the positive. Does this make the antenna extend, or do I need to do something with the green wire as well in order to get it to work? Also, once the antenna extends, how do I get it to go back so that I can install it without the antenna extended?

I figured out how to test the new antenna last night. For future reference, this is how it's done: To get the antenna to extend, connect the red antenna wire to the positive battery terminal, the black to the negative terminal, and the green radio signal wire to the positive as well. To get the antenna to go down, same procedure as above, except the green radio signal wire goes to the negative terminal.

So I now know that the new antenna works, but I still can't get it to go up when I turn the radio on. I installed the antenna last night and have it hooked up, but it doesn't go up. I will need to spend some time tracing the old wires to make sure that they are still hooked up. I didn't have the desire to do this last night. I put the care back together for a cruise-in that I want to go to tonight.

If you have any insight as to what to look for in diagnosing this, let me know. Thanks.

Jared

[jawn101]

I figured out how to test the new antenna last night. For future reference, this is how it's done: To get the antenna to extend, connect the red antenna wire to the positive battery terminal, the black to the negative terminal, and the green radio signal wire to the positive as well. To get the antenna to go down, same procedure as above, except the green radio signal wire goes to the negative terminal.

So I now know that the new antenna works, but I still can't get it to go up when I turn the radio on. I installed the antenna last night and have it hooked up, but it doesn't go up. I will need to spend some time tracing the old wires to make sure that they are still hooked up. I didn't have the desire to do this last night. I put the care back together for a cruise-in that I want to go to tonight.

If you have any insight as to what to look for in diagnosing this, let me know. Thanks.

Jared

The green wire is your turn-on signal wire, then. Connect it to the blue wire coming out of your radio (solid blue, not blue with yellow stripe) and the head unit will handle the rest.

EDIT: If you have the original radio installed still, I think the wire for remote turn-on was a long white one running along the center tunnel.

[Stainless]

The green wire is your turn-on signal wire, then. Connect it to the blue wire coming out of your radio (solid blue, not blue with yellow stripe) and the head unit will handle the rest.

EDIT: If you have the original radio installed still, I think the wire for remote turn-on was a long white one running along the center tunnel.

I need to get into the back of the aftermarket Kenwood deck and see what is going on in the back. I connected the green wire to a white one on the back shelf, but since it's an aftermarket deck, that can't be the right wire. Maybe I'll have more gusto to dive into this again on Saturday. Thanks for your help.

[jawn101]

I need to get into the back of the aftermarket Kenwood deck and see what is going on in the back. I connected the green wire to a white one on the back shelf, but since it's an aftermarket deck, that can't be the right wire. Maybe I'll have more gusto to dive into this again on Saturday. Thanks for your help.

Well, the aftermarket deck could have wired the blue remote turn-on to that white wire, since it was going in the right direction anyway. Check that out in your Kenwood wiring harness. Whoever installed the unit may have just omitted connecting the blue wire without knowing there was an antenna that needed to be operated. If you check the voltage on the white wire, what do you see when the head unit is on vs off? It may only show voltage when the unit is first switched on or off.

[Stainless]

I think I'm on to something. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finally find the Kenwood installation manual for the deck until after it was dark, so I didn't get to try this out last night.

First, a little more background: The previous owner bought and installed a Kenwood KVT-617 DVD player deck with a 7" pop-up screen. This is not your everyday deck, which is what was causing my problems.

There is a group of wires that goes from the back of the deck to a "receiver unit" that sits inside the cubby behind the driver's seat. Coming off of the receiver, there is a blue wire that is labeled "ANT CONT." I didn't find this until late last night. But referring to the manual, it says this: "Depending on what antenna you are using, connect either to the control terminal of the motor antenna, or to the power terminal for the booster amplifier of the film-type antenna."

Based on that, I believe that I need to hook the green "signal" wire to this blue wire, and then just make sure that the red antenna wire has good power, then ensure that the ground wire is hooked up. I'm hoping that this will work.

I also scanned the installation instructions to show you what I'm dealing with. The orange box shows what the back of the deck looks like. The purple box shows what the receiver behind the driver's seat looks like. The red box shows the wire that I believe I need to use in order for the motor in the antenna to be triggered. What do you think?
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w57/jlattin21/Kenwooddeck.jpg

[jawn101]

Pretty typical stuff there. The only major difference between your unit and everyone elses is the added control module, which still seems to use standard color codes. As I said, blue wire (amp) to the green wire (antenna) and you should be good. Ground the black anywhere you have a convenient ground point. Most people hook the red to the door lock circuit breaker as it's always live and that way your antenna has some sort of protection (and you aren't just adding tons of extra wires to your battery terminals)

[Stainless]

I got this hooked up and working a couple of weekends ago. It finally worked when I hooked it up to the blue wire off of the receiver unit behind the driver's seat. All is well except the Legacy LN46 antenna that I have either isn't working right, or it is a piece of crap antenna. It's like the gear or whatever is inside doesn't engage all the way, so it sometimes doesn't go all the way up. What's even worse is that it doesn't go down on its own power unless "assisted" by me pushing it down quickly before the motor stops spinning. I'll admit that it doesn't line up the best with the hole in the induction grill because of the canister taking up so much space, but I expected a lot better.

For those of you running the Legacy LN46 antenna, let me know if this doesn't sound right, or if these qualities are normal for this brand.

[axh174]

I bought a Legacy LN46 several years ago and it has been working fine for me. No issues going up or down, never needs assistance, no struggling noises. Is it perhaps due to not lining up well with the hole in the induction grill? If the mast is rubbing or slightly bent it can cause some difficulty when being deployed.

On a side note, I recall hearing somewhere that the Legacy LN46 does not fit well inside the original (read: early) radio bracket that sits inside the rear pontoon. I'm not sure if the brackets DMCH sells these days are the same size/style or if they have been updated. I built my bracket from a piece of Home Depot-bought sheet metal so I was able to make sure there was no twisting of the antenna mast.

-Kevin

EDIT: Scratch that, I just recalled that I ordered an LN46, but received an LN48. So I haven't had a problem with the LN48.