decampos

I'm replacing the original Hirschmann with something similar. It's currently installed in the rear fender. Before I start, how easy is it to thread the coax cable through the car, into the center console, behind the radio?

Any advice, very much appreciated.
Thanks

The Patman

Not sure what kind ya have but in mine, the stock antenna cable screwed into the stock antenna. The new unit I got (not stock) still had the same screw in receptacle.

Took 20 minutes. Save your upper mounting hardware, the angled rubber stuff on the outside.

decampos

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the new one I have has the coax cable hard wired into it so I cannot use the existing Hirschmann one. I have to rethread the whole thing.

The Patman

Oh. (Patman hangs his head in empathy). Well lets see...
There's a grommet in the fenderwell, then it runs along side of the noise padding under the inner quarter panel, then down the drivers side, across the font of the front seat, under the carpet on the transmission tunnel, up to the back of the radio.

2 weeks maybe?

Just kiddin' but it wont be easy. Perhaps that's why they put on the screw-on connector.

I didn't know it was a screw on connector on both units...it wasn't by design, more by chance.
Knowing what I know now, I woulda paid to get a replacement with a screw on connection.

I got mine from Roger, it was aftermarket, not stock Porsche, he had it on the shelf, and though I had the interior out and ready to run a new cable, I made the connection there in the fender-well.

Lets put it this way, I'd try to either leave the original cable and try to tuck this one under the interior panels and carpet mats or just spend the cash and save a lot of headache.

James Bailey

Roger knew the none original replacement was fitted with a screw on coax....it is no accident.

The Patman

here's the original cable running on the left originally taped to the insulation and heading down the drivers side crossing in font of the seat (all under the carpet) up the side of the tunnel under the carpet and to the radio.

decampos

Thanks for your replies. Photograph is really helpful.

James Bailey

Make sure your new cable is long enough BEFORE you start pulling out the rear seat and interior 1/4 panel !! or you will be really unhappy....

hb253

Just curious, is it possible to splice the cable instead?

Hugo

The Patman

Possible, but difficult. The core of the coax is like a hair from a redhead. I've had to do mine before. It takes a bit of patience, and planning. There are blurbs on the internet about doing it. Insulation of the core and the shield are key. Waterproofing as well. If you're good with a razor, soldering iron and shrink wrap it will take about a half hour (cause you'll do it six times)...that's the planning part...planning to have enough of a pig-tail to do it and redo it a bunch of times while crouched under the rear fender with little space to do such a delicate job...with mosquitoes biting you and while bumping into the paint bucket that is holding the new antenna while you solder and your legs are cramping from sitting crosslegged and spilling molten metal on your ankle ...after it burns a hole in your sock...these are facts. I know each to be true.

Wisconsin Joe

^This.

Big time.

I had to put a new connector on my windshield antenna coax because some butcher of a PO (not the guy I got it from) cut the connector off.

I probably cut the nylon center insulation three or four times (maybe an inch and a half of cable) looking for the center conductor wire. I was thinking that the idiot who cut off the connector didn't go all the way through and yanked the center wire out a ways up the cable.
Took a break, did some searching on here and found out that it's thinner than a human hair. Very, very,very fine wire.

Went back with better lighting and a magnifying glass and found it almost immediately.
Soldering it was only slightly easier than described above. Mainly because the mosquitos weren't out yet and I was hanging upside down under the dash, not crosslegged in the back. So the solder dripped onto my eye protection, not my ankle.

But it worked.