Good news if you can hear the motor still trying. All you have to do is remove the entire unit from the car to replace the mast. Hopefully your mast is fully retracted. If it is, using long nosed pliers, unscrew the black ring nut where the mast just comes out of the side of the car. If it isn't you'll have to cut the antenna off somehow, just above the black ring nut. Now remove all interior panels that give access to the antenna inside the fender. At the top of the antenna (inside the fender) unscrew the 10 mm nut, and undo the 2 screws that hold the 2 inch circular exit piece on the outside of the fender. Undo the 10 mm nut holding the antenna to the fender well, unhook the antenna lead to the radio, unhook the wiring harness to the antenna, and pull the drain hose off the bottom of the antenna assembly. Put the unit on your work bench and take out the screw at the base of the antenna tube that attaches it to the motor assembly. Remove the nut that holds the the base assembly together and carefully separate the two halves. Remove any broken pieces of the nylon whip and pull the old antenna mast down out of the tube previously removed. Push the new mast into the antenna tube, leaving it fully extended. Put both halves of the base unit back together. At this point put everything into the back of the car and turn the radio on. Place the new whip into the base unit with the gear tooth side towards the centre of the base unit and push it until you feel it contact the gears inside. Keeping the antenna pointed outside of the hatch, plug the wiring harness back in and have someone turn off the radio. The antenna should be pulled back down inside the tube and into the base unit until fully retracted. Cycle the antenna on and off this way two or three times to ensure that it works properly, and then reassemble the antenna and put it back into the car. Good luck.

 

i can hear my antenna motor trying to work too, but nothing happens. my antenna is straight. so i guess i have to do all that stuff too?

 

Curiously, as well, you can use a late model Toyota Camry antenna mast instead of the Nissan one. I live 50 miles from the nearest Nissan dealer, but 5 miles from a Toyota dealership. A check of mast diameters and length found that the Camry one was 2.5 inches shorter and had a smaller ball on top of the last mast section, but obviously was made by the same Japanese supplier. I just unscrewed the mast ***** off the two units and changed them, to ensure that it sealed the end of the antenna tube from water when fully retracted. Other than that, reception is the same, and I've used the Camry mast for 3 years or so now without problems.

 

what year camry

 

I was never told what year the Camry mast was for. I'm assuming somewhere around 98 or so. I took my old Z antenna mast into the Toyota dealership and they matched it up with a Camry one they had in stock. As I said it was 2 inches shorter, with too small of a top ball on the last section, but had the same diameter for the main tube and the same gear toothed nylon whip. Worked like a charm and still does three years later.