How to replace your electric antenna mast

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Larry Witherspoon
First Gear
Posts: 97
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2002 4:08 am
Location: Torrance (Los Angeles), California

Mysteries Of The Mast

Post by Larry Witherspoon »

WOW what a thread !!! I do not normally interest myself in other than the performance type forums but a recent chain of events got me looking for more info on the Legacy electric antenna to close the gap on a few questions I have. I think from what is supplied here, and what some are asking here, I can say that now I almost qualify as an expert on the subject. I say ALMOST because there are still some anomalies in my part number catalog versus what has actually been observed.

To really understand the "Mysteries Of The Mast", It may be helpful to first understand the curious factory radio situation. When the first gen Legacy was introduced as a sedan, The radio/cassette/CD combo was provided by Clarion. There was an electric antenna option which apparently Clarion was responsible to provide wire harness, electric antenna motor, and mounting brackets. The motor, brackets, and telescoping mast with toothed style cable were all provided and listed as an antenna assembly with one part number.

When the Legacy wagon was introduced a year later, for whatever reason, the radio combo was provided by Matsushita, under the familiar brand name of Panasonic, with corresponding responsibility for harness, electric antenna motor, and mounting brackets. Well, Matsushita went to somebody other than did Clarion for the motor, and had the foresight to list the telescoping mast as a separate subassembly. The result for the wagon; different harness terminations, a different style smooth cable to mate with the different style motor take up reel, and different Subaru part numbers for the radio, the motor assembly and a separate Subaru number for the mast, none of which are interchangeable with the Clarion equipment on the Sedan.

Apparently, to "normalize" the disparity in part number designations between the sedan and the wagon, Subaru later created a "synthetic" part number for the sedan mast corresponding to the format of the wagon OEM part number, even though Clarion did not provide a break out. Curiously, they also created another part number with a totally different format, for an antenna mast "option" for the sedan, which is priced considerably lower than the OEM number. Probably went straight to the motor vendor for it rather than thru Clarion.

The wagon radio has the word Panasonic at the lower right corner of the multi monitor display window which is in the upper right hand corner of the radio. The cassette door cover will also have the alphanumeric characters P113...P for Panasonic. Not certain what the Clarion equipment has but I'm told it's some similar identification. Most cars do not have the CD player, which is what gives the most trouble and the reason for my search also for a radio combo after having it repaired twice already. It may be the CD player, which is a separate unit in the same bracket housing is a Clarion. My parts manual only list radio w/ cassette and radio w/o cassette.

To see a picture of a stock 92 Legacy wagon radio/cassette/CD combo go here

http://members.aol.com/ssspoon/cdradio.jpg

After I broke my first mast, I bought a "universal" electric antenna, and spent much time tearing up the back of my wagon to get to the antenna motor, only to find the brackets didn't fit the universal motor. In hindsight, it would probably have been easier to elongate the bracket holes, but nooooo, I had to have everything clean. So I figured I would just use the mast subassembly from the universal in my perfectly good motor assembly. Well, after spending more time carefully opening up both motor reels to make the exchange, I discovered the universal reel had a toothed cable which would not work in my stock wagon reel which took a smooth cable. SHIT (my exact exclamation was considerably more expressive).

Well, then I became angry and stubborn. The universal installation would require enlarging my bracket holes, and leaving a bunch universal wires I didn't need dangling all over, and even thought hidden I just decided I didn't want to use it. I would wait until I could score the right mast assembly. So I have this universal electric antenna that's probably OK for a sedan that's up for grabs for anybody that want's it with any kind of embarrassing low offer and shipping cost. I also have a mast subassembly for a sedan that's up for grabs for the same reason and the reason for my expertise, because the picture on ebay was not taken at a high enough resolution to show the f 'n teeth.

As a last point of interest on the topic, the wagon antenna mast removal and replacement is the same as the sedan, I have done it twice. It helps to have a helper turn the radio on and off while you poke the cable down into the hole trying to get the take-up reel to hook the little ball and retract the antenna.

Now the part numbers as listed in what appears to be a factory catalog;

AM/FM Radio

w/o cassette

Clarion
90 SOA333D165
91-94 86201AA200

Matsushita
90 86201AA140

w/ cassette

Clarion
90 86201AA110
92-94 86201AA340

Matsushita
90-94 86201AA350

Power Antenna Assembly

Sedan to 8/90 90-91 SOA447D465
Sedan from 9/90 91-94 86321AA090
Mast Subassembly 86322AA110
Mast Subassembly SOA447D466 (non listed option)

Wagon 90-94 SOA333D470
Mast Subassembly 86322AA020

Subaru of America has changed the alphanumeric formatting of many part numbers from SOA to non SOA somewhere in the early to mid 90's. So you might have a part which if not identical is interchangeable and that part may have two numbers, with the old still in stock along with the new, and at different prices. Motor mounts or trans mounts are another example of this I have experienced. If your parts man is sharp he can save you a few bucks by looking up the cross reference, but the dealer may not want him to tell you.

OK that's all I have for now. Please let me know if this helped any of you out
Larry Witherspoon
ssspoon@aol.com
Torrance (Los Angeles)
92 Turbo Legacy Wagon
310-429-4269
yazmo
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Posts: 673
Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:05 pm
Location: Canada

Re: How to replace your electric antenna mast

Post by yazmo »

where i can get the picture of this?
Legacy777
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Location: Houston, Tx
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Re: How to replace your electric antenna mast

Post by Legacy777 »

Are you looking for pictures/diagrams of the stock antenna? You can d/l the parts catalog from me. The stock antenna diagram is on page 965 of 1,265.

If you are interested in pictures for the various parts Larry posted, I'd try putting the part #'s into Google and see what comes up.
Josh

surrealmirage.com/subaru
1990 Legacy (AWD, 6MT, & EJ22T Swap)
2020 Outback Limted XT

If you need to get a hold of me please email me rather then pm
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