Dan,

Thanks for taking an interest. The problem of the antenna going down to far was solved by taking the mast off the motor and inserting a piece of hose that was equal in length to the distance that the antenna was going below the surface. I put this into the lower end of the mast. Now the antenna on its way down hits this hose with a smaller diameter and stops the antenna from retracting into the motor housing. That leaves the ball end just where it should be.

There must be something inside of these (working) antenna masts that does what my hose does and something must have happened to mine. This is a used car that I have had for about 5 years and the antenna has always worked but who knows what happened in the 13 years prior to that (this is a 1997 S90).

In the process of finding the solution I did in fact forget to put the metal piece you refer to on and in later attempt I put it on the mast before inserting the the antenna so your contribution was indeed helpful. I finally got everything right and it works. It is now just a matter of waiting to see how long my fix lasts.

Thanks again,

Len