I did the same replacement and had the exact same problem.

Just to make sure that no water seeped in, I used a little bit of caulking
just on the very inside edge if the metal and then tightened it down. no
water leaks and three city settings on my pioneer cd-player! Seattle,
Portland, San Francisco.

Myles
1986 GL

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Tim and Kaylyn
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 9:17 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: replacing antenna ??

I bought mine thru gowesty.com

$9.95 and it works great!! The only thing is the rubber boot footprint isn't
as large as the original. I tried to make the old boot work but the angle
was slightly different and I could not get the nut to tighten down on it.

HTH,
Tim
1989 Westfalia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Honan" <bhonan@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 9:12 AM
Subject: replacing antenna ??

> John McLean wrote:
> >I just replaced my antenna with one from BD about two weeks ago.   It
> >seemed to
> >work reasonably well for low cost item made in an asian country for a
> >european
> >vehicle.   The only hassle I had was I had to bear down on the nut to
> >compress
> >the rubber gasket to allow the nut to grab the threads.   After that the
> >nut
> >secured the antenna to my satisfaction and it is straight and stable.
> >  My $0.02
> >
> >John McLean   87 Vanagon  GL
> >
> >John, how did you bear down on it ? Push down with your hand ? Could
these
> >things just not be consistently made ? We all have the same van so if it
> >works here for John It should work in Pittsburgh.
>
> Brian
> 87 GL , playing cassette tapes
> >
> >
> > >
> > >  If there is one out there that simply works I think I am going to
> > > >return this to B.D. It only tightens up on a flat piece of metal why
so
> > > >complicated ?
> > > >Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one out there with this
> >problem,
> > > >I thought I must be simple or something to not figure it out.
> > > >>>Brian I had the same problem with the antenna replacement from the
> >Bus
> > > >>Depot.
> > > >>  I had to ground down the barb and make the clearance area between
> >the
> > > >>barb
> > > >>and the body of antenna base wider/bigger so that it would let the
> >antenna
> > > >>itself slip further up onto the body of the van.  I  took quite a
bit
> >off
> > > >>if
> > > >>I remember, I think I used a hack saw and then cleaned it up with a

> >hand
>
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