Bench testing power antenna

[Fireguyfire]

The power antenna on my 70 300 has been replaced at some point in the past, and is currently not working.
A friend gave me an era correct power antenna he had and I thought I would just swap it out with mine, then I thought I should bench test it first to ensure it is working before installing.
The antenna has 3 wires, black red and green.
The black is obviously a ground, therefore I’m guessing if I ground the black to the negative post on a battery, and then connect either the red, or the green to the positive the antenna should go up or down.
Is that a correct way to bench test this power antenna?

 

[Big_John]

Yellow is up and red is down. No green wire. You'll find that on page 8-109 in the FSM.

Never assume black is a ground.... Sometimes it just isn't.

But that makes for a question.... Except for that black cable that is the antenna cable, there is no black wire that I can remember. Are you sure you have the right one? Here's a pic of mine.

 

[thethee]

I assume "era correct" does not equal "factory correct".

You could check for continuity between the wires. The two wires that give open circuit with each other should be directional power feed wires and the remaining third will be your ground.

 

[3175375]

The power antenna on my 70 300 has been replaced at some point in the past, and is currently not working.
A friend gave me an era correct power antenna he had and I thought I would just swap it out with mine, then I thought I should bench test it first to ensure it is working before installing.
The antenna has 3 wires, black red and green.
The black is obviously a ground, therefore I’m guessing if I ground the black to the negative post on a battery, and then connect either the red, or the green to the positive the antenna should go up or down.
Is that a correct way to bench test this power antenna?

Any markings on it?
Maybe you can find a manual online.

Does it have a relay mounted on the side of it?

I have a totally automatic power antenna on my 65 Mustang and I believe that it has power, ground and an antenna signal (it goes up when the antenna signal is 12 vdc and down when the signal is removed.

 

[Fireguyfire]

It’s definitely not a factory power antenna. In the FSM it shows brown wire for down, yellow for up but as stated this one has green and red.
The black wire is short and has a ring end on it so it can be bolted down, hence the obvious ground.

 

[Big_John]

It’s definitely not a factory power antenna. In the FSM it shows brown wire for down, yellow for up but as stated this one has green and red.
The black wire is short and has a ring end on it so it can be bolted down, hence the obvious ground.

Before you put a lot of time in it, check if it will fit.

The factory antenna has a pretty short housing and when retracted, about 8" or so still sticks out of the fender.

The spot it goes in is pretty small and I looked at aftermarket antennas for mine.. and I didn't see one that would fit.

 

[GregG48203]

correct way to bench test

I had an aftermarket boneyard power antenna from a 1980s Caddy. It used three wires: green, gray, and white. The raising and lowering functions were accomplished by flipping the polarity of the wires. A two-wire antenna likely uses the antenna body/mount as the ground.