64 Power antenna cable and wiring routing
 

In the process of adding the power antenna to my 64. Can anyone tell me how to best route the antenna to radio cable and the dash switch to antenna wiring? It would look like the best route would be behind the heater box and down the hump under the console. I have the cover that fits over the cables, but I'm guessing that is for the rear seat and under the under carpet tarry paper. Any help would be appreciated.

Put the instrument panel back in yesterday. It's amazing what something like that does to your enthusiasm. It actually looks like it might run again someday.

In time for Wichita or Pittsburgh or both???? "Bill"!

Bill, you're assuming I'd know which year's shows that would be! Between work, part time ranching, looking after Mom, etc. this process has moved at a drunken snail's pace. If I could spend the next three weeks doing nothing but this car, then yeah! But........

Sorry Pecosbill, Both those shows are in 2014. POCI in Wichita in June and GTOAA in Pittsburgh in July. Sure hope to see you there. "Bill"!

Beautiful ride; a labor of love!!!!!!! As I told Ron C. last year; TIC TOC TIC TOC.

I might be able to get you part way there. I don't belive mine has ever been apart. Cables are routed behind the heater core and mine are behind the insulation too.

http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps98a9ef36.jpg
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1225798b.jpg
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Rohrt, that is VERY helpful, just what I was looking for. I notice that there are some screwed in brackets holding the cable and wire to the floor. I don't have those but should be able to fabricate. Thank you very much.

FWIW
 

The wire protection cover you mention in your OP is for under the rear seat.
Would be to cover acc wires leading into the luggage compartment.
Ill is from '66 but should be about the same.

Thanks, Jeff. That makes a lot of sense, as it would need to be protected from getting caught up in the seat springs. I was wondering how that worked with the protector having those angles in it. That helps a lot.
Bill

Got everything installed and went to plug the power connector in and I can't figure out where it goes. The male plug coming off the switch looks like it would mate with a very specific female socket but I can't figure out where?

Connector on the Antenna side or the radio side?

The switch has two wires running from it. The one that goes to the antenna plugged right in to the cord that runs to the antenna, no problem. But the other wire coming off the switch has a red connector on the end that doesn't seem to want to plug into anyplace I can find. At first I thought it might plug directly into the radio and take its power from the radio power line, but it doesn't fit. Also, it's a little bit short to reach down that far. So it must plug in to the dash harness elsewhere, but where?

Is it possible it plugs directly into the fuse box?

Not without some sort of extension harness. The cord is only about 9-12 inches long from where it comes off of the antenna dash switch. Where does your plug in?

Sorry I can't help. Mine was cut.

That's a shame. Was the antenna still in the car? Did you replace it or are you planning to replace it?

Nope the antenna was long gone too. Just the wires and switch were left in place and the switch is shot. I don't plane to put it back in on my restored bezzel. If my car was a gto I would have tried to find a factory antenna but as it is I put in universal one, and now I'm waiting on my am conversion radio. The conversion will have a power antenna lead.

Did you mount the antenna in the original hole on the quarter panel or did you put it somewhere else?

I used the existing hole. It worked out very well. I have the same 15 deg angle. I don't think anyone will know that its a cheap antenna unless they know what to look for.

That will be right much easier to raise and lower than the original style, too. Did you use those clips in the pic you posted to tie your wiring down?

The clips on the floor are still in place and I plane to keep them there. The universal antenna needs a constant power wire and a switched power to raise so I was going to use the same wires and just leave them in place. I have a 2 connector plug I will pin out and use in the trunk area. The wires are just laying in the trunk. No clip that I see for the wires.

Here are some more pics that I have.

The original end for the antenna. This was the worst 50 ohm coax I have ever seen. Not a very good shield and the center conductor was the most tiny tin lead I have ever seen. I got some better coax at work.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps69758c8b.jpg

Here is the factory plug, In the background you can see the antenna mount.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps685dcac5.jpg

I don't know what this is? I would guess that it was just to plug the hole. I did use a couple of pieces from it on the universal antenna that fit better.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psb492fcc0.jpg

The elcheapo antenna from ebay. I got it for around $20. Our vendor sells the same thing for around $70.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psc9873a69.jpg

Here is the simple mount I made for it and attached with a self tapping screw to the trunk hinge mount. I painted it black and it looks like it belongs there. I don't have any more pics with it mounted. Had planed to take it outside and get some better light but it never happened.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9cbd6ce7.jpg

So the guy who had the car before you took the power antenna out but left the cable, the harness and the mount? Odd. He must have planned on having it fixed and putting it back in, but it never happened I guess. Interesting thing from your pic is that the antenna coax has a female connector on the end of it. The cable that came with mine also has a connector like that at the antenna and I had just assumed that the male part was broken off of it. But apparently that's the way it's supposed to be. Good thing I saw your pic before I went and bought a male connector, snipped the original female one off and then tried to install the new one....that would have been bad news to find out later that the connector was correct.

I'd like to see a pic of your finished installation whenever you get a chance. My next project is a 67 basket case 242 goat convertible and I am going to put some nice add-ons like a power antenna that works off the on-off switch to the radio.

Now, I just have to figure out how to plug this one I have in to where?

Will post more pics when I can of the final install of my elchepo antenna.

The car is stuffed away for the winter. I hope to have it out in April.

I have pics of an original antenna. When I saw the connector on the antenna the cable made sense as well as the mount.

Found a few more pics that I had saved and stuffed away on my computer.

http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4e51b16b.jpg
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psa88227f2.jpg
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps360e430e.jpg
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0b7401fc.jpg
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psc1bf7ecd.jpg
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psb4022594.png
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps73f735c9.jpg

Great pics, thanks! The harness coming off of the switch is much longer than what I have on mine and the power plug is different. Otherwise, everything else is spot on.

A few more pics I promised a while back.


This is the pick of the el-chepo antenna that I'm going with
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...pse63b6068.jpg

There were two clips behind the seat.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6ae115bd.jpg

The old switch has seen better days and will not be going back in.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psde367a28.jpg

The orange power wire is plugged into the bottom right hand side. I would guess that is not factory correct.
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1fec4127.jpg

I would like to expand on the routing of wiring to the rear trunk area. The 2nd photo in Post No. 5 shows the antenna wire and power wire (wires) running diagonal and adjacent to the propeller shaft tunnel, feeding into the main floor channel. I have seen illustrations showing the wiring running in the diagonal channel just to the right in this same picture. However, typically what I have found is the wiring drops vertically down from the dash into the main channel. The main channel is provided with a series of rectangular bump-outs spaced at 9 - 13 in. intervals. These bump-outs are installed along the length of the main channel, often alternating sides, and sometimes opposite another. As seen in this same photo, the bump-outs are provided with dimples. The dimples are locators for the installation of the screws which are used to secure the retaining clips. Because you have power running to the trunk area, the Floor Pan Wire Protector Cover (cover) is used (Item no. 12 in Post No. 7). The cover is galvanized, and is used wherever you have power wire running to the trunk. The wires run up out of the interior, into the trunk, and secured as shown in the 2nd photo of Post No. 24, running between the wheel housing and quarter panel to the antenna.
I am not familiar with the two brackets in the 1st and 2nd photo of Post No. 5 which appear to be welded to the floor pan.

For speaker wiring (Separa-Phonic) running to the trunk area where power is not involved, securement is not the same. While the route taken in the right side main floor channel is the same, 2 in. wide, 3-4 in. long, black tape is used to hold the wire in place. A single clip secured to the floor in the first bump-out behind the right side bucket seat may be used. All remaining securement to the floor is by tape. Because no power is involved, no galvanized cover is used. The wiring is secured to the diagonal bracing behind the rear seat, using two clips.

Rohrt, I know this is an older thread, but my Tempest is nearing the point of wiring the power antenna that I'm adding. I would like to wire it correctly. Would you be willing to re-post your photos since photobucket has hijacked all the pictures? I know its asking a lot. Thanks in advance.
Tony

After I did the fix suggested in another thread, the Roht pics are showing up in Posts #22 and Post #24 for me anyway.

Tom V.

restore

Hello all, I would like to follow up on this thread as I searched and it’s the only one that hit “power antenna routing”. If there is another thread could someone point me to it?

I have a correct Pontiac rear power antenna installed on my 65 GTO, but the power wiring is just running across the two “hooks” on the top of the rear seat back frame, then down the floor drivers side and appears under the carpet over by the parking brake area at the front. The antenna cable is just routed over the hump and down on the floor pan under rear pass seat area, coiled up/not connected. Likely because the antenna end is kind of chewed up with no center cable showing. The antenna works perfectly raising/lowering when connected to power.

1) looking at these pix in this thread and with my interior fully assembled with console, what is my best approach to route the antenna and power harness to the radio and (future) dash switch? Should I just bundle them together and snake under the carpet under the console or is it better to try to run a correct path. If correct, is the power wiring run separately through the wiring channel under the drivers seat, or do they stay together like it looks for these 64 pictures?

2) I plan to buy a correct NOS dash antenna switch with a new Ames bezel/handle and install when I pull the dash this summer for other things. I assume the plastic two-wire antenna power connector with black and white wires just plug straight into a correct under-dash switch wiring harness?

3) at the antenna cable radio end, is that supposed to be a male “standard” 50 ohm connector to plug into the back of the radio (AM/FM push button)? If so, do I need to just strip it back until I hit the center wire and then crimp a new connector on and should be good to go?

Thanks for any help and discussion! I’ll post pix if that helps. I have the rear seat out and am preparing to pull drivers/passenger seat(s), console, seat belts, carpet etc to get a good path to the front. I’m now also considering installing a rear speaker while doing all this and would like to route that correctly too, nothing is back there right now. I figure I should get this all done at the same time.

Fun stuff!

Still working to sort this out and put my interior back in. I just bought the Ames wiring protector (pic included) and ordered a rear speaker wire (backordered so I'll have to run a plain wire for now and splice later). I'm trying to figure out where to mount the wiring protector, and another question is what type screws hold it down (I'm assuming a set of small sheet-metal type screws)?

So questions are:

1) where exactly does this wiring protector mount? Under passenger side rear seat area?

2) where should you route the rear speaker wire to get it down to the protector from the trunk area? I know there are a couple of "clip" like hooks on the seatback framing, do I use one of those?

3) I'm also running power antenna wiring and cable under this protector, how should they route from the rear antenna (I assume over the wheelwell then just curve over towards the center until they reach the protector? The 64 rear antenna wiring pictures show them being held down by individual screws/brackets themselves).

4) Once all this wiring extends past the front of the protector towards the front, do I just tape it all down in a "channel" all the way to the dash? Wiring will be: antenna cable, antenna two-wire harness, rear speaker one-wire harness, and a single-wire cable for rear camera.

Thanks for any help!!

Was your ‘65 Originally ordered with a Power Antenna?
If so, there should be holes or possibly dimples in the floor on the RH side under the rear seat cushion.

Here are some photos of a OEM Power Antenna that was ordered with my ‘65.

MPC illustration showing metal protector for various rear mounted options.
A spare factory unit I have.
Red arrows pointing to both ends of protector which is covered by factory insulation.
Routing of cable, wires and rear seat speaker blue wire.

Chris.

A few more showing how the cable and wires head over to the Power Antenna secured with clips.

Hi Chris. Are those clips the same as the ws washer hose clip used on the dr. fender? Thanks

"Bill"!

Thank you so much! No, it originally had manual antenna. But the floor pan does show dimples and I will check the cover alignment tomorrow.

Now it looks like I need the clips and hold downs for the speaker wire, so I’ll start tracking those down.

I appreciate it, great reference pictures!

Hi Bill,

The single metal clip that holds the hose for the W/S washer is larger and I’ve never seen that clip used anywhere else on these cars.

The clips in the trunk to secure the speaker wire and Power Antenna wires is smaller and a different design.

Chris.

Chris,

So, in looking at your two pix showing clips being used for the radio wire and power antenna wiring, the closest thing I can find appears to be this clip from Ames (D203). Is there a better source for the proper clips to use in the trunk for this stuff?

Thanks!

And now googling around I found this link:

https://www.zoro.com/b-line-by-eaton...14/i/G1951092/

With examples that look like they may be closer to correct. I assume anything that has enough of a "pinch" to hold onto the back brace or wheelwell seam/etc should work fine, it looks like the ones in your pix may be zinc also?

Thanks!

The cable clips you found on that ZORO site look pretty close.

The wire harness for the rear lights seems to have a similar clip that grabs onto a body seam.

Here are a few more pics to work with.

Following up after asking rear wiring questions, here are my pix
 

Thanks for the help and reference posts on the forum. Here are some pix:

First two: how I found the wiring in the car (wrong, power antenna wiring snaked over/under driver side, power antenna cable just looped under pass rear seat maybe because the radio connector was broken/missing).

Next two: How I routed wiring and installed under-pass-rear-seat shield and screwed down and taped the wiring heading to the front.

Last one, view back to front of all the wiring. The bundle contains the power antenna cable, the power antenna wiring harness (two-wire), the rear speaker wire, and a rear camera cable.

Thanks for the all the help, I tried to get it all as close to correct as I could.

Nice job. Looks good!