Hi All, I had issues with the standard electric aerial on my PFL:
1/ Not going down all the way
2/ constant whirring
3/ etc..
I looked on various MR2 related sites and the major consensus was to take the thing apart. This I did and it fell to pieces, the plastic cog was deteriorated and broke in several places upon handling it - no welding and fixing there. Then discovered when ordering I could have got just the mast instead of purchasing a replacement electric one from https://mr2-ben.co.uk/products/534 and would not had to have taken it apart ( Lesson learnt.) Now after wiring it in I then blew the radio due to my in adeptness at electrics - by crossing the incorrect wire. The fuse was as fault and after a few days I discovered the radio fuse location & replaced the fuse. Voila working radio, but not aerial.
I think it could be perhaps a bad earth, but am open to suggestions please.
Get the two wires from the aerial and try them on a 12v feed to make sure the aerial works. With that done there are a few options, make sure you run the earth to a good earth and the live to one of the options below. Connect your earth first and put 12v on the live to check the earth is ok before continuing.
I used one of MR2 Bens on mine. I wired the live feed for the aerial back to the light blue on the rear of the sony pfl headunit. It lifts the aerial for radio use only and drops it for CD, which was just what i wanted.
If you don't have the original head unit then look for an aerial control wire on your stereo which would lift it when the stereo is on.
Alternatively wire it into a switched live and the aerial will go up whenever the key is in on ACC or running.
Alternatively wire it via the window lock switch (how to guide on here) and control up/down yourself manually.