Bumping an old thread because I just did this antenna replacement on my 3rd gen and learned a few things worth sharing.
I bought a no-name aftermarket mast and cable assembly off Amazon for like $20. If I had to do it again, I would probably spend the extra money and buy the OEM part even though it would have been more than double the cost.
The aftermarket piece is OK but feels a little flimsy and the teeth on the cable appear to be a bit more rounded that what they probably should be for the gear in the antenna motor. Everything works after the install, but I have a feeling I will need to do another replacement at some point in the relatively near future.
My mast was snapped off down in the shaft of the antenna housing, so it was a pain to get the broken mast pieces out since it wouldn't rise at all. There was no good way to grab the lip of the broken shaft. I tried finding a punch with a slightly wider diameter and trying to force it down in far enough that I could pull everything out from sheer friction of the punch being tight to the walls of the mast. That didn't work. I ultimately jammed needle nose pliers down far enough to be able to open them enough that it put pressure on the mast walls to be able to pull everything out.
Getting the wheel well liner off to access the motor was also kind of a pain because the clips holding it on were so old and crusty, they didn't come out easily. I ended up just snapping off a bunch of them and punching the rear posts out from the front, but I didn't have replacements ready when I was done with the job, so the liner was only attached in a couple of spots.
I watched a few YouTube videos beforehand that don't really show the full process to get the motor open to remove the old broken cable. There is a center bolt that holds everything together and there is a tiny nut in the recessed part of the back of the motor housing. I didn't realize that and the tiny nut fell out when I removed the bolt. Fortunately, I found it on the floor of the garage, but had no idea where it had come from. Put a wide piece of tape over the rear of the antenna motor housing to keep it from falling out and getting lost forever. You won't be able to put the motor back together without it. Then use a wide punch to hold it in place when you assemble and thread the bolt back in.
There is also a nut on the lower left-hand side that is sandwiched between the plastic motor housing that can get jostled around and out of alignment. It's captured so it won't fall out, but it can get moved out of alignment and prevent you from closing everything back up. Make sure you're aware of it. Again, having a thin punch is handy to be able to reposition it and get it centered on the opening.
The motor just sort of hangs down out of the wheel well, so it is a little awkward to work with. The plastic cable attached to the new antenna was also hard to get aligned with the gear. It was like there was tension on the assembly and the cable just kept wanting to spin the teeth the opposite direction of where they needed to be to feed into the gear. But once I was able to hold it still it fed in.
Make sure you have a helper to turn the radio on and off to make sure everything is working before you close the motor and get it back in the truck. I had one of my kids help and it took a bit of trial and error to get the cable to feed so I was getting consistent up and down action.
All in all, this job was a bigger pain in the neck than it should have been. It probably took me about 90 minutes total if you don't count the time spent on YouTube trying to figure out where the tiny bolt came from.
It wasn't terrible, but I really don't want to have to do the job again any time soon. Hence, why I would buy the OEM antenna if I had a do over.
I hope this helps you and maybe others. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures along the way.
