Power Antenna Help

[NightEye]

I just got a new Firebird a week ago (pewter 2001, very awesome), but the power antenna will not go up. I took it to Pontiac to have it looked at under warranty while they fixed something else, but they informed me that its an aftermarket antenna, so they won't touch it. They say it costs $338 to get a GM stock replacement in there.

Can anyopne give me some advice on what to lok for to try and troubleshoot this myself (just as a side note - never done anything technical on a Firebird, so I'm not familiar with it yet)? The antenna works just fine, it just doesn't extend. I'm gonna look at it tomorrow - what should I be looking for to see what the problem is? I'm hoping its just a loose conenction.

If not, I may just buy the stock antenna myself and install it myself - given no experience on my car (but do have some electrical experience) how hard would it be to install. Does all the proper harness/motor/etc come with it so no extra work beyond assembly has to be done?

Thanks in advance for any responses!

[96firebird311]

$338 ?!?!!??! Holy cr@p!!! The stock antenna is only about $65 I think. And it's a piece of cake to replace. Go to a different shop and ask them to price it for you. Or check it out online.

When my stock antenna went out, I bought an aftermarket one from www.rksport.com for $100. It was universal kit that fits a bunch of cars. The biggest advantage of my aftermarket antenna vs. the stock one is that mine has a removable mast. So if the mast gets bent in half (again) I don't have to replace the entire motor as well.

[NightEye]

I looked at it visually to see if anything caught my eye. There was an orange wire that was connected to a red wire that went to a block box right under the antenna. The orange part of it (which lead to the front of the car) was slightly cut, the wire was about 1/3 cut into.

Wish I had a wire diagram to know what signal that wire is. Anyone know?