Stock 2000 Explorer Radio Problems

[puzzaa]

Hey, so I have the stock explorer radio with the cd and cassette (not the mach) and basically I tried adding aux to it. I followed a guide which in I disassemble the radio, locate the pinouts on the Cd portion (which are labeled ground, left, and right conveniently) and solder on wires which connect to a aux cable. I tried this, and got only left channel audio (its a very small area to get a soldering iron in, so thats probably the issue). Anyway, I got another radio, same model, which i attempted to do the same procedure, only actually get it to work. And successfully it did!
But, it only worked for about two days. Now when I turn the truck on, I get no power to the radio. Checked the fuse, its fine. Once I start driving, the display lights up, but no response when I push buttons. It may turn on to say "530 AM" station but I get no radio through the speakers. Just a quiet buzz. After 20 minutes of driving everything goes back to normal and my aux works like it did. I tried switching back to the original radio, but I put my modified cd tray in that one, and still the same thing. I've never seen something like this happen. Maybe the wires are touching and grounding out the radio?

I know I know, "just get a aftermarket radio", I like to keep the original look
Thanks for any help by the way its appreciated

 

[donalds]

Can I have a link to the tutorial you used to do the mod

 

[donalds]

Some pics of your soldering job it will help me to know if it needs touching up may be an intermittent connection due to a cold solder joint
Or spatter

I would not use the radio in till you fix it

 

[puzzaa]

I cant find the link to the one specific to this model radio but this link is about the same except where he soldered the ground to. On my radio the ground location is similar to the left and right channel connections
Adding an Auxilary Input Into a Ford Stereo

I'm not in front of the truck right now but i can get pictures when I get home later

 

[donalds]

Cool

 

[J_C]

I've never disassembled one of those but one thing which I'd wonder about is if there way any prying involved which might have flexed a circuit board and broken solder joints, which now need reflowed, or it might have cracked surface mount ceramic capacitors.

Ultimately I would put it on a bench, feed it 12V and signal (or just FM tuner with an antenna) probe for power (20VDC meter range) and signal (20VAC range) with a multimeter along the power and signal paths.

If it is a difficult area to solder then you might need to use an iron with a finer tip, and possibly use thin solid core wire at the solder points then to that wire, solder your aux-in cable.

What I found easier was to just get one of those lighter outlet powered bluetooth receiver FM transmitter things for use with a bluetooth equipped audio source. If your area has some FM frequency range where there aren't any stations, they can do fairly well.

 

[puzzaa]

It was just poor soldering on my end. I cleaned it up and glued and zip tied down the wire so it wouldnt pull on the joints. No, no prying is involved all you have to do is take out 6 screws and lift the cd tray out (its got a connector that lines up with the main pcb when you screw it back down, yes i made sure it lined up before smashing it down haha).

I tried the Fm modulator and it seemed to produce very poor quality, maybe it was the interference of the area I was using it in. I also tried a cassette to aux adapter but it made too much noise and still didn't achieve the quality I was looking for. Using the CD portion really makes the audio clear.

I can do a write-up if anyone is interested!

 

[Mbrooks420]

I’d just add an aftermarket deck. Easier, better sound, built in Bluetooth and Aux inputs. Especially after you do all that work, your display might crap out.

 

[fast_dave]

I can do a write-up if anyone is interested!

That would be cool!

DO IT w/ lots of pics!!!