Is there any reason that I can't replace my stock antenna with a power one? All the wiring seems to be there. Is there something in the factory head that I need to make this work?

I believe Don did this on his 95.

With my experience with power antennas, they are a PITA and always seem to seize then brake. I had one on my Cutlass Supreme SL, so I changed that one to a rubber mast one. And the bonne had one that of course didn't work so it too is changed over to a rubber mast one.

even if you didn't have the wires there, it wouldn't be that hard to get them there. I MAY still replace the antenna with a power one but not sure yet, I have to finish fixing the rest of the bugs first.

If a power one doesn't go down all the way, it will try and try till it does.

It will suck battery by doing this. The most i've used my antenna save during sports games, was in Canada, because i wanted some club music ( I didn't bring any mp3 discs if that) and they didn't have much!

Um, yes and no. If the internal core breaks, it will run endlessly until the battery goes dead.

In normal operation, it runs in either direction until it hits its stop at the end. The kickback from hitting the stop is what shuts the motor off: it deflects the worm drive one way or the other, opening the pair of contacts that'* in use (to switch off) but leaving the other pair closed, ready for when it needs to go in the other direction. You can hear this kickback functioning in normal operation if you listen carefully: When it gets to the end of its travel, it doesn't click off crisply; it kind of goes "Grrraunch..." instead.

So when the core breaks, there'* no kickback, and the motorized reel turns endlessly until there'* no power left.

Does the factory head operate the antenna?

Yes it should. I know mine did and I think every head unit does. The only thing though is that if your car didn't have a power antenea from the factory the wire may not have been put into the harness.

acg_ssei - I meant if the antenna doesn't fully go down due to corrosion, or crud in there, and is say half up, it will run and kill a battery

Wiring may be there. It'd be a lot of work for them to figure out which cars at the factory needed it, and which didn't.

Actually most of them now days will shut off after being under load for a bit so that it doesn't break the gear or run down the battery. Mine used to do that on the cutlass shortly before I got rid of it. It would stick halfway up or down and it would just stop the motor. I had to turn the head unit on and off a few times to get fully up or down due to the fact that the motor shuts down after a bit.

I know some memebers here had a parasitic drain on the battery. Tracked it down to the antenna trying to go down every 15 minutes or something.... Maybe way shorter then that.