FuelLeak

Greetings all. Just a quick one that I cant seem to get an answer to at my hobby shop. Feeding a reciever antenna into a new antenna tube is a pain. My technique is to twirl the antenna tube as the wire feeds into it (painfully slow). Am I doing any damage to the metal wire inside of the antenna wire casing? It is my thought that twisting the antenna wire may be doing some harm, although all of my cars' radios work fine (so far).

Osirisf16

Not at all, it's fine. BUT there are some other ways to feed an antenna through a tube. The first is to put some oil, feed a little, take it out, put some oil, feed it and slowly slowly it will be veryu easy to put the antenna through the tube. The other way which is ULTRA easy, is to put the antenna in a flour (cooking material) and try to feed it throught he tube. You will be surprised how easy it is, i recommend it.

systemlord

The only way I've been able to get the antenna wire through the straw is spraying Windex inside the straw then feeding it through. After run oil will work also, but I wouldn't use motor oil though. See Windex has drying agents in it to help it dry. It would be pretty hard to hurt the antenna wire feeding it through a straw, you could never be able to aply enough pressure.

dacaur

ive tried flour and oil, it kinda works and gets the job done, but isn't always easy... try getting a new antenna tube, the ones you get separately at your LHS for like $1 are normaly easier.. another method is to get some thread, thread it through, wrap it around the antenna a bunch of times, and pull it through.

<edited for spelling>

systemlord

I have found the Traxxas brand antenna tube to be the least bendable (lot more stiff) antenna tube out there.

Osirisf16

Flour is the best solution for me. None problems.And is kinda cheap, don't you think? instead of after run oil. If you are too husty, then yes, you might don't get the job done but who is hurry? I mean, this is a hobby of patience and a whole of time.

Anomie

I've used flour also, and it works pretty well. I tried speedo cable lube (graphite) one time and it worked even better, albeit a tad expensive.

The last time I ran the antenna in an extended pipe I had to poke a stiffer piece of copper wire through, soldered the antenna to it tip-to-tip, and then pulled it through. It was a bit of work, but did the job.

FuelLeak

Thank you to all who responded to my question. I really appreciate the advice, and I will definately be utilizing one of your techniques in the near future. A giant thanks again to all of you!