I modified my Factory radio to hook up to my MP3 player

[crazybronco]

Well, I asked if anyone had done this and I got no response. So I pulled out my stereo and did it myself.
My truck is a 99 and it just came with the basic radio and cassette player. I opened it ip and found that on the cassette player it had 4 wires that attached to the circuit board that said RR RL FR FL. I made the assumption that these were for the speaker channels.
I got some small wire and soldered it on to front left and right. I they got a 3.5mm female plug in from an old boom box and attached the wires to it.
I had to make a dummy cassette tape to put in while I use the MP3 player but it works just fine.
I can still use the cassette player, it works like normal still.
The only issue I have with it is that because the inputs I found were pre-amp I had to turn my MP3 players volume all the way down and adjust the EQ a little. I installed the plug in in the front of the dash next to the radio so no wires are hanging out of the dash. Just plug it in to the hole.
I did all this in about 2 hours with my son (16 years old) and it cost me nothing. I will add some pictures later today.

 

[rngr4x4beast]

sounds like a lot of work when you coudl have just got 1 of those cassette tapes with the wire but to each his own

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

cool idea, but u can also get this instead of the cassette
and u will have better sound quality
http://www.amazon.com/MMC-Wireless-Transmitter-Remote-Black/dp/B0016BVDIK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298345269&sr=1-1

 

[hondaxr650]

cool idea, but u can also get this instead of the cassette
and u will have better sound quality
http://www.amazon.com/MMC-Wireless-Transmitter-Remote-Black/dp/B0016BVDIK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298345269&sr=1-1

Have you tried one of those? I've tried a couple of different FM transmitters over the years and there just aren't any clean, unused frequencies where I live so there's always some sort of radio interference coming through. Mine are both in a landfill somewhere. Great idea if someone can make one that actually works right.
I rarely used my factory CD changer so I bought an adapter that turns the changer input on the radio into an auxillary input and mounted a female plug in the cig. lighter hole. No problems so far.........