PARTS & SUPPLIES NEEDED (* means only if you ad in a fuse block)
Cobra 19 CB Radio
10' metal whip antenna with spring
Rat Shack Antenna Mount
10 ft - 14ga wire
8 ft - 10ga wire
12 ft RG-8 or RG-58
PL-259 Solder on Plugs & Reducers for above cable
Shrink tubing
Electrical Tape
6 ft of black wire loom
4" 3/8 fuel hose
2 - Wire/hose clips that fit around the fuel hose
Rubber Cement
Can of bed spray on bedliner
Accessory Fuse block*
2 Self tapping sheet metal screws*
5A fuse*
10ga wire*
O-Ring terminal for the 10ga wire connection (to batt or power center)
Rubber Grommet for abouve wire where it passes through firewall*
TOOLS NEEDED
Drill & Drill Bits
Sodering Iron
Assorted Sockets
Wire Strippers
SWR meter
1. First thing to do is pick your location for your CB & Antenna. I decided on the driver side rear corner of my YJ for my antenna and the center console for my CB because it meant I could piggy back into the existing wiring looms. Once you pick out your spot, you'll want to drill the holes to mount your antenna and start feeding the RG-8 into your cab.
2. You will may have to cut your RG-8 to feed it through everything, so if you do make sure you leave it as long as possible.
3. I went ahead and mocked up where I wanted the CB and cut my antenna cable to length. Next I had to solder on the plug (make sure you put the adapter on first) and then covered it all with wire loom.
4.Now I dropped the CB into the console and started running the power leads that came with the CB, back into the wire loom. I grounded to the console support and ran the hot as far back as possible towards my dashboard.
5. Rather than tap into the stock fuse box, I decided to add an accessory block. If you aren't adding an accessory block you can just tap into the factory unit, call it a day and jump to the antenna tuning.
6. Putting in the accessory block is not rocket science by any measure. Drill a hole in your firewall big enough for the grommet & 10ga wire and start feeding.
7. The fuse block can be mounted with the self tapping sheet metal screws anywhere. I tried to get as high as possible to avoid it gettting soaked. Connect everything under the dash (solder, etc) before proceeding.
8. Back on the other end of the wire, solder on your connecter and attach to your battery or power distribution center.
9. Use the SWR meter to tune your antenna per the manufacturer instructions or bring it to a local CB shop. DO NOT power on your CB and try to transmit without an antenna attached. For my super long antenna, I added two little antenna holders that I made with the fuel hose, clips & bedliner. It's working well so far.
