1999 Mountaineer Radio Display Blank
There are many posts on the infamous radio display is "blank" issue, on Explorer, Mountaineers, and other brands as well. I read many of those posts to derive my solution. The main culprit is the heat generated by R1060,R1061,R1062,R1063, which are 2W resistors mounted very close to the board. The heat eventually cracks solder joints or in my case cracked the plated thru holes for components. Its very difficult to see the damamge unless you use a 10x eyepiece. The solution is to remove the resistors and elevate them to a height of 1/2 inch or more above the board. There isn't enough lead on the resistors to do this so you have to use leads from other components to create "stilts" to hold the resistors above the board. I tried just resoldering the board, but until I elevated the resistors, the fix wasn't permanent. You have to be good with a soldering iron to prevent further damage but this solution is essentially free except for the labor to elevate the resistors, 1-2 hrs.