It's that time to do some maintenance before the Sporadic E season kicks off and this year I want to replace the steel wire on my 7.6M Adaptamast. I emailed TM only to get an auto response that they're closed till further notice due to government guidelines on coronavirus, I'd hoped they'd still be able to write emails but it seems not.

Does anyone know how much stainless steel wire is required on this one? To measure it myself will involved removing everything from the mast, something I really want to do in one go on the same day as fitting new.

Cheers
Paul
PS Apologies if this is the wrong section for aerial mast questions.

dont use stainless steel it will eventually snap round the pulley,s galvanised only
afraid cant help on the length dia is I believe 6mm

Oh while Im here you need to add your location into your profile...its int rules

Thanks Neill, I wasn't sure which it was but assumed stainless so thanks for the correction and advice. I found a useful page referenced that has since been deleted but is still available on archive, I'll leave a link here https://web.archive.org/web/20130917225 ... peinfo.htm I also found another tip somewhere else suggesting soaking new galvanised wire in oil to add lubrication through the centre of the rope. I'll probably just buy 10M of it as this is more than twice the height of the lower section so should be ample.

eBay item number:153734396771

Try these

Bryan.............

You can buy steel wire already lubricated, its a bit messy threading it, but well worth the effort. I have had some on the tower for around 3 years, looks as good as the day I fitted it.

Just to close my thread I ended buying a replacement cable from GS Products, spec as per Tennamast 4MM2 7/19 Galvanised. I bought it as a single length, each end has a swaged loop and one end has a hard eye. I bought a 20M length of it which was more than enough so after measuring out the mast raising length I chopped it with an angle grinder then measured the tilting cable before chopping off the excess (it was still half the price that Tennamast quoted me). When it arrived I left it sitting in engine oil for a few days, it was surprising how much it soaked up.

My method of replacement
Pull out the top section until it hits the stop, remove both nuts at the top of the lower section, remove the pulley and extract the mast.
Cable tie the new cable to the old and pull through from the top.
Undo the nut and bolt holding the cable to the top section, you'll need an open ended spanner to hold the nut inside the mast.
Slide top section back into the bottom mast, it's easier if you bring the new cable up to the join so you can take up the slack as you slide the top section in.
Refit pulley and make sure everything slides correctly and isn't snagging before fitting the stop bolt.