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If it is the ball bearing I think it is, believe it just inserts in the upper housing or bearing area hole and sits at the end of the shaft. It takes the thrust of the armature and worm.

If you find something that works on the drive cable let us know. I and others have been looking for a substitute without much success. Some antennas use an ordinary round nylon and others have the sort of a flattened rectangle with tapered sides. Finding the rectangular shape at retail seems impossible and while there are lots of round rods, they are not very flexible.

thanks, that is where I suspected the ball bearing went...good to know for sure!

the wire.....I was looking at my fish tape yesterday. you know the metal kind that you run wires through walls with. it is very high tensile and flexible. the only thing I wasn't sure about is it being made of metal and being attached to the antenna end. would that negate the signal or enhance it....no idea. but they do have fiberglass and nylon versions. but the fish tape is almost exactly the same width as the original material. its curved in a housing of its own and I have used it multiple times in and out...so I don't think it will ever break.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_tape

The metal rod won't work as it will ground the antenna mast. The mast is isolated via the rubber or plastic bushing in the cap and top of pipe and another isolation bushing at the bottom of pipe just above the mechanical section. The antenna lead connection is soldered or clipped to the mast and then the center post in the plug bringing that out to the cable is isolated from the pipe.

understood and I was thinking that may be the case.

so...there is still fiberglass and nylon fish tape to be looked at. its thick enough and sturdy enough to not just fold on itself when pushing the antenna mast up. also it will curve on itself many times over and over as that is how it is stored.

Now that you mention fish tapes, I do recall seeing some kind of nylon or synthetic tape used at a site still in construction. Wasn't the electricians which we mostly dealt with so it may have been a specialty trade that had them. No idea of the diameter of the line but maybe worth investigating.

Being flexible, even if large I wonder if it would be possible to make some kind of jig and setup to grind the round a bit flat to fit the rectangular need.

my thought was that it really wouldn't matter the shape as you can push more pressure on the outside gear by adjusting the screw on the outside that pushes on the spring. this would push harder even on a round item as long as the round item was not too large and fit semi wise into the grooves on the little turn cranks. wide enough that it would not fit inside the groove on either crank...but be barely too big so that it sat on the leading edge of the groove.

I got a new heater fan blower motor from a local source. Thanks local source!

I was able to rebuild this one successfully, although whoever made this model of fan motor did not really want you rebuilding this on your own as they put the brushes on the opposite end and there was no way with human hands to hold the brushes against the springs and drop in the armature piece.

I had to have my wife help and we both used a paper clip going in from the bolt holes and held the brushes in place while I dropped the armature piece in place. this worked great.

I also just used black rtv to make a new rubber gasket for the mounting panel to fan motor. I didn't tighten it all the way down until it was dry so that it had some thickness to it like the original gasket.

I used that black door edge guarding you can buy at wally world that is used to stop door dings and paint chips when opening your door on your car. it doesn't want to stay very well, but once it is mounted it will hold on fine with pressure against the fender.

I still need to get a new rubber grommet from the hardware store for the new wires where they come out of the fan motor body. I also need to crimp on end terminals.

as for the rubber that is used when mounting the fan to the fender, I'm going to try to use the same rubber I used when mounting the radiator to the cradle and see what happens. the toilet bowel ones.

I have 2 weeks stay at home vacation coming after Friday...so I'll be rebuilding a few other things like the antenna and the washer jar.

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since I'm on a staycation these next couple of weeks, I've been fiddling in the garage. I got a lot of little pieces mounted to the car, including the gas pedal (temporary) and linkage, kick down linkage, hood ornament, etc. I also rebuild the trico mag-u-matic jar. it was a total PITA! that plastic LOVES to crack and break. I can't blame it though.

I also finished up the heater blower motor and mounted it, but I may have to use a flat rubber washer on the part close to the fender as the bevel washer is pushing it too far out and the 3rd bolt hold isn't lining up right. its amazing how many other things you can use plumbing washer for. I got a new grommet for the wires coming from the motor housing from lowes and then stuffed the felt back in from the front.

The washer jar, I forgot a spring in the black plastic piece and had to drill out the rivets that came from McVey's that I spent a pretty penny on. I ended up just using 1/8" regular rivets to put it back together, only not fully expanding them as it would crack the plastic and did on the first one. I just got them snug and then snipped off the remaining metal and ground it flat. it looks fine.

the rest I just used stainless screws so I could take it apart much easier in the future if needed. its not 100% correct, but I doubt if anyone would notice unless I pointed it out. if it works it will be a miracle, but to be honest I don't plan on having to use it. its probably mostly for looks now. very expensive looks to say the least! There was a rubber seal missing in my McVey's kit, so I made one myself and it worked perfectly. Also one of the gaskets had a flap that wasn't on my original, but McVey's told me it was supposed to be there so I used it.

I was also missing the little metal filter screen, so I cut one from a plumbing part of some kind and shoved it in the tip of the washer pump. worked great!

The little actuator was total PITA to get those wires to connect, the solder would NOT stick for the life of me. I finally got it. the red cap wont go on unless you get it just right too. the little tips broke off where the hoses connect too. jb weld fixed that. it was a miracle I got this to work even as decently as it turned out. I don't wish a rebuild of that thing on anyone.

the power antenna....forget it....for some reason the motor burnt out and wont work now. I had to snip the wires to get the brush mount over the top of the armature so I could reset the little BB in the bottom that was pushing up the armature and making it impossible to put the housing back together. well I re connected everything and it wont work no. I tried several times and different ways. it's just toast I guess. to be honest....I don't really care...I wont be listening to the radio anyways.

my 1970 dart doesn't have water in the washer bottle nor does it have a radio and I don't miss either of them, I doubt I will in the Packard.

I don't know who reproduces the antenna to fender grommet either as its not listed on steele rubber's website. they only have the dual antenna version listed. If I can find a grommet i'll mount the antenna for looks, but if not i'll cut some thick rubber to insert as a blank for the hole in the fender and be done with it.

I had planned on using that nylon fish wire from Harbor Freight, it was only $6.49 and looked to be the perfect size to fit the antenna mast to push it up and down and flexible enough to coil up in the bottom when lowered, but alas I wont know because I'm just not going to spend money on a new antenna motor.....and it probably wouldn't have worked anyways, but it was worth a try.

I have been in touch with a company that reproduces the firewall pad for the 55/56 in both a/c and non a/c versions, but they do not have a plenum for either. Being I have the heater plenum, they have agreed to have a look at it and see about repoping it. But, alas my plenum is not in as good of shape as I remember it being.....mouse or something destroyed it in the shed I think. it used to be complete like in the first pic...but not its all ate up. I have a better one coming from Ross so I can see about sending it to them for repoping. Thanks to Ross!

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Check the dimensions on the earlier version of the antenna grommet and see if it will work.

Isn't the front of the plenum fiberglass or some hard plastic? If all you need is the rear you can probably use some upholstery cardboard and attach to the front piece.

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Thanks HH, I planned on calling them and seeing what they have. I didn't think to looking at the earlier models.

please look at my pictures again if you wish...I had a very hard time getting them all to post. I plan to email Kev about this issue.

also sorry I failed on the power antenna...I feel like I let you guys down that were hoping for a solution to the original nylon piece. now I have no way to test it.