jtexas
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2003
- Messages
- 8,646
'98 Explorer & similar Fords and Mercurys have a common problem of the factory AM/FM/CD/Cassette stereo display goes blank, never to be seen again. All the functions still work, just you have to guess at what you're doing. Found a fix on a Ford truck owners site, which I didn't really believe it would work. But, I had to pull the radio anyway to fix the cigarette lighter, so what the heck.<br /><br />Amazingly, it works!<br /><br />Here it is:<br /><br />To remove the radio, there's a tool you can get for $4 at autozone, pull the radio out & unplug it.<br /><br />Take out the two little screws, one on either side of the faceplate. There's also two tabs on either side holding it on; outward pressure on the tabs will release the face plate. <br /><br />Be careful, near the left hand edge there's a cord with a six-pin connector connecting the faceplate. Unplug it; the other end is on the display power source circuit board, which you will be removing. It's a narrow board along the left hand side of the stereo with a tin heat shield covering it. You'll recognize it; it's got a toroid (wire wound doughnut) on the top side.<br /><br />Remove the top of the stereo.<br /><br />Facing the back of the unit, take out the screw in the upper right hand corner.<br /><br />Two metal bend-tabs hold the display power circuit board in place. The board is painted white where the tabs are. One is in front at the left hand corner. For the other, look down through the half-moon opening in the tin heat shield; that one is a bear. Don't bend it up toward the top; bend it so that it is parallel with the sides of the unit (perpendicular to front & back). I worried with the tin heat shield until it popped off - wasn't a big deal. I think it was soldered on, but that was just to hold it in place for manufacture; it clips back on for reinstallation.<br /><br />Once you have the board out, look on the bottom for surface mount components R1057/C1071/R1058/C1083/R1064. They're lined up along one side. You might need a magnifying glass to read those. <br /><br />Apparently, the colder these resistor/capacitor chips get, the brighter the display.<br /><br />Get a soldering iron, a small one for electronics (not a jewelry-making one), and just melt the solder at the connections of these components. Be careful, they are probably very sensitive to heat.<br /><br />That's it. Put it all back together and enjoy!<br /><br />Some have said that it didn't work; they had to de-solder and re-solder those components. I couldn't possibly have done that; don't have the eyesight or skills for working with surface-mounts. good luck!
