Is there a way to fix a broken AM/FM antenna?

I purchased a new to me (2008) Legacy stereo from a salvage yard online with mp3, etc. to replace my oem 2005 HEU. It was in excellent shape when I inspected it. I had been busy with work, etc. so I put it on a shelf for a month or so. I finally got around to installing the unit this evening, everything was fine except when I went to install the antenna, I noticed the end came off.

 

Upon inspection I could see that it appeared to me it was yanked out and the guy just kind of slapped it back on. When I installed it into the car I pushed it in as best as I could but I could clearly see it was probably going to have issues.

 

Well, I was correct, my AM/FM reception is just a little better than static. So my question is, is there a way to fix, repair (like a splice) or better yet replace this antenna?

 

And I'm talking about the antenna wire that dangles off the radio, specifically the plastic (molex type) male connection end that plugs into the female end in the dash. That grey/black plastic molex connection fell off of that antenna wire.

 

Any help would really be appreciated, I kinda like local radio. I plan on doing the xm radio upgrade down the road and I know I'll enjoy mp3's but in the meantime I would really like to get that fixed, I can tell it's going to bug the heck out of me.

 

Thanks!

 

Kevin

You can disassemble the new stereo and the one you originally had. Remove the antenna from your original stereo (removing the solder on the board) and soldering it to the 08 stereo.

 

Unfortunately it can't really be spliced because as you would see there is a wire in the center which is insulated the there is wire outside of that which is all together insulated. It would be very difficult to splice and keep these wires protected from each other. I believe one is am antenna and one is fm... but I may be wrong.

 

Good luck

You can disassemble the new stereo and the one you originally had. Remove the antenna from your original stereo (removing the solder on the board) and soldering it to the 08 stereo.

 

Unfortunately it can't really be spliced because as you would see there is a wire in the center which is insulated the there is wire outside of that which is all together insulated. It would be very difficult to splice and keep these wires protected from each other. I believe one is am antenna and one is fm... but I may be wrong.

 

Good luck

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I think you're right and that's kinda/sorta what I was thinking too after I posted this. I started looking at the old one and I figured that's the direction I would have to go. Man, I just know I'm looking at a couple of hours work there, I was hoping for a simpler solution. Ah well.

The insulated wire is the hot wire and the wire all around the insulation is the ground. You have ground, insulation then you have single hot wire running through the insulation.