My radio does not work. The button and dial lights come on with the dash lights. The LCD is on but has no backlight; if you look at it at an angle you can see its on though. Lastly, and most important, I get no sound. Is the radio just bad or something else?

 

I'd say check power and ground connections, and if that checks out ok then the radio's bad. The speaker and illumination circuits won't affect the display even if they were faulty.

 

Have you checked to make sure all the wires (like the speaker wires) are connected? The messed up display wouldn't prevent sound from coming out but does make it hard to tune . If the connections check out, I'd bet the radio is bad. The radio just has a few wires going in (power, ground, antenna, memory) and most of the wires go out to the speakers.

 

Yeah the wires all looked good. I was going to check the connections at the speakers but it seems unlikely that all would be bad. If one speaker shorted out or was grounded wrong or something would that cause all of them to not work?

 

Just to repeat what has been said, in your year truck, the standard factory radio has individual circuits for: speakers; radio memory; radio main power; and faceplate light.

The speakers circuits run from the radio to the speakers. They do not interact with any other system in the truck.

The radio memory is always hot. It keeps the memory for the programmed radio stations and powers the clock. It is fuse #8. Light green wire/yellow stripe.

The radio main power is switched from the key. It runs the radio itself. It is fuse #11, yellow wire/black stripe.

The faceplate light is an orange wire/black stripe. It comes from the light switch. The radio must be removed from the dash to replace the bulb.

!!!! The ground for the radio is RED !!!! Why Ford did this is a mystery to me!

If you replace the radio, Buy a small harness (~$5) from Radio Shack or Amazon that connects to the back of the new radio and will plug into the Ford main harness.. It will make your life MUCH easier in this new install, future upgrades, or troubleshooting. There is no need to hack up the factory harness.

Amazon.com: Metra 1985-2004 Ford Lincoln Mercury Non Premium Sound Wiring Harness: Car Electronics