Broken antenna - to drill or not to drill?

.

 

Drill it out.

 

Would one of those extractor sets work? Or maybe you could leave as is and call it the "ultimate stubby antenna"

 

Don't drill. Try an extractor vs drilling it out.

Or

Get JB weld, weld the antenna (or anything else that will make good contact and you can twist) back together and let it dry fully. Twist it out. Just don't get JB weld all over the place. A small dot works well.

I've even seen superglue do the trick.. Just depends on how tight the antenna was before it broke.

 

+1 on the extractor. hit it with some penetrating lube spray first and give it a try.

 

If its not recessed too much try cutting a slot in it and using a flat head screwdriver.

 

Good luck. My antenna broke off and it was the biggest pita. I ended up having to replace the whole antenna mast, nut, and antenna. Everything was corroded for some reason, and could not get anything to loosen. I had to take a drill to the antenna nut in order to remove it.

In order to do all of that I had to remove the inner fender liner and the fender flare. Sounds easy enough, but after buying all of the plastic clips that break it cost me over $100 easy.

 

hard to tell from pics, but it looks like you should be able to fill that puppy with Break-free or WD-40 and let it soak. If you give that a while it may just pop and spin right out with the right size extractor. I've done the soak trick before in a little cup, so if you can remove that assembly (4 notches on outter ring? I'm not sure..) you might be able to make the job a lot easier.

 

this..i like.

even putting a dent on the edge and pushing it around with a sharp thin chisel may work.

i've used a dremel to cut slots and use a flatblade screwdriver many many times.

 

Left hand drill bit. That's what I used when my antenna broke off.

 

This and if it doesn't remove it while drilling you will have the hole needed for the extractor / easy out.

 

I had a similar experience a few years back after mine broke off in a drive thru car wash that I specifically asked if it was ok to leave it. Dumbasses. It cost me about $90 in parts plus a new antenna (bought a 15" from Autozone). I tried everything suggested in this thread and mine broke off about as deep as yours and nothing worked. Guess when the last time I went through an auto car wash was?

 

i hammered a flat head in mine and it came right out.

 

Use an extractor set, usually used for striped screws. My best advice is to make sure it is small enough ao that when you start drilling/extracting into the screw your arent also taking out the threads while creating that whole in the broken section still in the threads

 

Left hand drill. I'm pretty sure antennas are hard as fuck tho.
Just today I used a left hand carbide center drill to get a frozen brake pad retaining pin out of my friends rear caliper for his Harley.

 

Just did this a few weeks ago. was drilling a tiny hole in the antenna in order to use a extractor. but once the drill bit was about half way in ( took my time and did not apply much pressure while drilling ) I reversed the drill to get the drill bit out and the antenna unscrewed with the drill bit.

 

This. Slow and easy, let the bit do the work.

 

That's good life advice.. unless you want to break a lot of drill bits.

 

I sense some undertones here..

 

Lost mine in my last taco in a car wash. Think I could find an aftermarket that could cover the hole properly? No.
Best to try and salvage the stock base.