Fuba antenna amp bypass (for wagons)

["Tim King" <tking_ms@email.msn.com>]

These are the instructions for bypassing the amp in the fuba antenna that
comes with the 200 and 5000 wagons. Symptoms of a blown amp -- poor FM and
no AM reception. The reception with the bypass is surprisingly good. The
procedure comes from the Corrado list:
http://www.corrado-club.com/corrado/garage/bypassfuba.html  -- I tried it
and it works.

Bypassing the Fuba Amplifier
From: s_bone@juno.com (Steven K. Bone)
<snip>

The first step is to remove the antenna from the car. This process is
described
in detail in other articles, but the short version is to remove the plastic
trim
piece at the rear of the headliner and then pull the headliner down an inch
or
two. The antenna is fastened to the roof with a nut. Unscrew the nut and
remove
the antenna.

The next step is to disassemble the base where the amplifier is located.
This is
a delicate operation and care must be taken not to destroy the unit. On the
bottom of the base are two phillips head screws which fasten an aluminum cap
to
the bottom of the black plastic base . The problem is that when the base was
assembled at the factory it was filled with foam adhesive. This was probably
done for two reasons. First to seal the unit from water, and second to
provide
added strength to the finished assembly. After removing the two screws
carefully
insert a thin screwdriver blade down the sides of the base cutting away the
foam. Work your way around the base until it finally separates from the
aluminum
cap.

The amplifier should remain attached to the aluminum cap. Mine had obviously
been wet and had corrosion all over it. Someone skilled in electronics could
probably repair the amp, but I elected to rip it off with a pair of pliers.
At this point you should have the plastic base, and the aluminum cap with
two
wires attached, the power lead, and a lead from the coax cable. Pull the
power
lead out of the cap from the bottom, it no longer serves any purpose. In the
bottom (top) of the plastic base you will see a metal "button" which is the
bottom of the threaded insert the mast screws into. Take a piece of wire and
solder one end to the "button" and the other to the coax cable lead.
Now you can reassemble the base and cap using the phillips head screws and
put
the antenna back on the car.

I do think that without the foam adhesive the assembly is not as strong,
therefore it might be wise to remove the antenna mast before going through a
carwash, but I have not had any problems during normal driving.
From: Byron Porter ssccpas@inlandnet.net

I found the procedures outlined in the orginial posting to be complete,
however,
I think I have some additional tips to make the procedure simplier to
follow.
First, keep in mind that the foam adhesive completely fills the black
plastic
cone.  This means that in order to remove the outer cone, you must detach
the
foam from the majority of the inside of the cone.  I started using a small
screwdriver to do this, but migrated to a long, thin bladed pocket knife.
This
process took some time and requires patience. It also took some force - I
wouldn't necassarily describe it as a delicate procedure.

Once the cone was off, I made a slight error when I removed the foam encased
amplifier with a pliers.  Doing so removed the coax cable at the base,
making
the soldering of the bypass wire more interesting.  In retrospect, I would
spend
a little more time removing the foam and amp. The coax cable connects to the
amp
at the base and was not in the normal coax sheilding - all I saw was the
copper
wiring.

After soldering some wire between the button at the top of the cone and the
coax
in the aluminum base, I covered the solderings with some silcon. The
rational
being to protect the connection against moisture because of the hole in the
base
left when I removed the power cable.

Tim King
Seattle WA
89 200tqw