Does anybody know what that serpentine wire is for going up the antenna? Having a wire wrapped around the mast something relatively new.

 

Soooo.. it appears that size does matter after all - both visually as well as functionally, smaller is better, stubby may be best, and clipping off extra length doesn't hurt anything.


Whodda thunk it!

 

How did you get the ball off and then attach it back to the 18" part?

 

It's just held on by pressure. You just take a cresent wrench and tighten it on the antnna itself, right below the ball. Then, use a hammer and hit the wrench towards the end of the ball, and it should pop off after a good hit or two. Then, once you cut the antenna with a hacksaw, file the tip to a chamfer and hammer the ball back on the antenna with a few good whacks. Finally, use some black touch-up paint to touch-up any scratches and that's it. Took about 15 minutes, and no loss in reception.

 

Thanks, just did mine exactly like you said...
Looks great...
Reception great...

 

Great... glad it worked out. Don't know why Ford didn't just make it shorter. At least down to 18" like I cut mine too. I live in a fairly small town where reception is pretty bad anyway. And it almost seems like the reception is better once I cut it. Definitely not worse anyway. So, not sure why it needed to be so long in the first place.

 

Air flow the wire causes the air to flow differently keeps it from vibrating as much and making noise i.e. wind whistle.

 

making the antenna shorter will affect the reception but not by much. the antenna is a tuned item. for the best fm radio reception you would want a antenna around 28-29 inches for a 1/4 wave or around 114 for a full wave. but nobody is going to want a 114 inch antenna on their mustang. a 14 inch antenna would be your next best option giving you a 1/8 wave reception. if you want to go shorter 7 inches will drop it to a 16th wavelength. so if you are going to shorten your antenna try to stick with an 8th or 16th wavelength. you should not have to worry about the cap since it should have very little if no effect on the tune. as for installing a antenna under a body panel it would only work well done under fiberglass or plastic since those materials are very transparrent to RF signals. an antenna mounted on glass should get good reception as well in theory but i could see where you might have some problems as well.