how in the heck do I install an aftermarket antennae?

[jeepxj2007]

Alright...I am more frustrated that a blind squirrel right now...I recently put an alpine cd player in my ranger, and had to cut the stupid coaxial cable to disconnect it from the ford radio unit, so I bought an antenna with the cable and everything, a nice little stubby one...but how in the heck do I get the coaxial cable through wherever it came from back into the cab? I even have a small thing of chicken wire poking around for a hole, and I took a flashlight and shined it through both sides and no matter which side I look at I do not see light!...any tricks? I am not dumb at mechanical stuff, I actually just ripped a 3.0 apart and cleaned it up and put it into my new truck and now I feel like an idiot because I can't even get an antennae to mount...any tricks?

 

[Sunk]

Tie a string or something on the end by the head unit and remove the antenna from the fender, pulling the cable through. Then tie the new cable on to the string and pull it back through.

 

[Mark_88]

If you haven't already removed the antenna the above works well...if you've removed it, you may be able to drop the glove box out of the way and fish it through with a coat hangar...it comes though the firewall about even with the back of the glove box so it's easier to work on with that out of the way...sometimes...

You can also remove the fender...but that gets complicated...

 

[rangerbum]

Sunk pretty much has it perfect. I do think that removing the fender is a little more work than necessary.(mark_88 is right on that one, and removing the glovebox)

 

[jeepxj2007]

lol yeah I thought of the string on the old cable right after I cut it and pulled it out...lol great timing huh? I poked and poked for a while with a coat hanger and couldn't find anything so I finally just drilled a small hole in the engine compartment, ran it through, then between the body and the front right fender, and through the grommet between the body and the door...you can't even see it and it is all protected. thanks for all the advice though!

 

[martin]

I would have just bought a couple of connectors and joined the coax.

 

[scottybones]

Same Problem as JeepX had

I am unable to fish the new antenna wire. I did tie the new cable onto the old and as i pulled it thru, guess what? new one got stuck and wala....the old one came right thru.

So I don't want to have to drill holes, and I tried for over two hours using the glovebox suggestion and too no avail I couldn't get it thru. Does the antenna cable go straight up as the rest of the bundled wires? Ideas to help me pull this new ant cable thru would be greatly appreciated.

scottybones