97 XLT 4.0 5 SPEED RADIO

[judgejohnmd]

This has an old Pioneer replacement radio which doesn’t work: just looking for suggestions for an upgrade: single or double? Don’t need CD option: don’t want to spend a ton!!
Thanks!
Judgejohnmd

 

[RonD]

For less expensive wrecking yards are a good place to shop for radios

1985 and up Rangers used the DIN sizing for radios, its a standardize height and width size(but not depth), that all vehicle makers adopted in the 1980's
Double DIN is the same width but twice as tall

1997 can use up to a 7 1/2" depth

If you get it(3rd party radio) from a wrecking yard and a Ranger then it should have the interface harness with it, so plug and play

 

[SenorNoob]

Depending on how cheap you wanna go... Factory radios were not bad. It's the stock speakers that sucked. Mostly cause you're talking about a 30 year old paper cone.

 

[Bill]

You can buy Sony, Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood single DIN stereos that will side right in place of that one. I recently bought an Alpine for $119. I suggest buying one that will play media from USB and that it has the ability to play FLAC files. That will run about $120. There are cheaper stereos starting at about $70, but they have USB. I suggest sticking with the major brands.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I've cheaped out with the Boss Audio $40 unit from Amazon that's single DIN, USB input and phone pairing, have two of them actually...

There's two dumb things with those, first on both I've had to power them both up, unplug the power connector from the back with the key on then plug it back in 20 seconds later to get the speakers to work, after that first connection they've both been fine. The other dumb thing is the retention catches keeping them from pushing in do NOT work, go over a bump while changing the volume and you push it in an inch... I tried bending them out a little but that didn't work, I'm about to put a drywall screw in opposing corners... The older one with a USB drive plugged in the front occasionally needs to have the drive unplugged then plugged in again to work and the random resets itself every key up so I have to hit the random button again...

 

[sandness]

As for the retention clips, I had a similar issue with a new "non-name brand" deck. I pulled out the radio and bent the clips way in so when I slid the radio back in, it held tighter.

 

[Roert42]

I like the cheap single din pioneer units. Good sound, last one I bought was $60 at Best Buy.
Am/FM/CD/AUX USB cost more.
Looks like yours had a satellite antenna too.