2002 Liberty Broken Antenna

adamnj

My girlfriend has a 2002 Liberty Limited. Recently, her radio antenna snapped off and it is broken within the black plastic housing. I haven't been able to remove the broken mast, but underneath the housing I see two small holes that appear to be where some sort of tool might go in to remove the housing. (?)

Also, I see that there are two technical service bulletins relative to broken antennas on this model. (Bulletin nos 0801401 and 01009). I can find the summaries online but not the full text. Does anyone know if these TSBs result in a dealer replacing the condition at no cost (like a recall)? When she took it to the dealer recently, they said that they would charge labor time, parts, etc. like any other repair.

I'd like to, if it won't be fixed for free, be able to do the repair myself. Any thoughts/comments would be very appreciated.

Thanks!
Adam

adamnj

Anyone? Particularly, I'm interested in tips on how to remove the black antenna plastic housing so that I can try to remove the broken-off bit of the existing mast.

rprafke

I just did this this last weekend. The black cover snaps on to three point. The bottom has a split the with a small screw driver you can bend out and release the bottom and thke it off. The threaded end of the mast goes into a steel head. If that is cracked replace it all. Remove the large nut holding the whole thing tight to the fender. I looked at the whole thing for 30 minutes before I took out the top 3 fender bols ane the top bolt inside the door. THe fender is loose and moved the 1" or so needed the pull the old unit clear.. The cable comes in the passanger side left of the plastic panel under the glove box. You do not need to remove the kick panel on the left. String a thin wire throught the hole from the inside out until it can be reached at the top of the fender. Tape the new cable to the wire and pull it back into the passanger compartment. Button it all back up> It took me 1 hr. with 30 minutes of thinking first.

adamnj

Thank you for your detailed info...really appreciate it. I managed to get the housing off, removed the retaining nut, and the realized how there is so little excess cable to remove/reattach the antenna without going into the fender as you describe.

I think first I'm going to try to use a broken screw extractor to remove the broken off mast. Then, hopefully I can just screw in a replacement mast. That failing, I'll be ripping it apart like you did, I guess.

Adam