The factory motorized antenna finally totally fell apart. Was going down the road, hit a big bump and had an antenna hanging on the pass front quarter panel.
So I dove in. I didn't take any photos because we're in middle of packing to close on a new house at the end of the month so I was outside working in the rain.
New house has an oversized three car garage
Couple tips for those who are going to do the Tacoma whip mod:
- After you pull down the glovebox, there is a plastic piece that creates the "top" side of the glove box, there are three 10mm bolts, if you remove that plastic piece you have much more room to work, so do that.
- I have seen a lot of folks use fishing line tied to the old antenna wire so they can pull the new one back through. I tried that, andddd it broke. It was even 20lb test. So what I did instead was tie a small knot in some heavy cordage, and ziptie it to the old wire. That worked like a charm.
- I can only speak for the 99 limiteds, but haven't seen this mentioned in any other write ups. There are 4 places where the factory antenna wire is "pinched" into place with a little clip.
One just to the right of the top vents
Two on the driver side of the airbag
Three on the pass side of the airbag(this is where removing that plastic piece comes in handy...
Four, pass side of the airbag about 3-4 inches right of that as the wire starts to turn down towards the fender.
If you do not unclip those, no matter how hard you pull, you will never get the wire out.
I struggled to get the wire and cordage all the way out through the fender so I unscrewed the footwell trim and single bolt that holds the right side of the dash, glove box, and lower trim piece into place.
With that I could wedge a trim removal tool between the doorframe and the dash and snip the ziptie leaving the cordage in place but allowing me to pull the antenna wire out through the fender.
I then started feeding the new antenna wire through the fender until I could see it where the cordage was. I then grabbed a long set of plier pulled both the wire and cordage through the bottom of the glovebox, zip-tied it and pulled it through pretty much without issue.
Only pic I took...
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Linear Mode
