I've got a 1998 Ford Ranger that I've changed from the original AM/FM cassette to an AM/FM CD/Cassette player from another Ranger. It's a good sounding factory cd player. I don't need a high dollar window shaker, just a nice sounding radio. I like to keep it all looking factory so I don't want wires running everywhere. I'm interested in knowing what is involved with adding an oem AMP from another Ranger or Explorer to my 98 Ranger? Is it a matter of getting the amp and the harness? Is it even a plug and play harness? Or does it have to be wired into the fuse box? My radio uses the long rectangular connectors instead of apparently more common square plugs. I know I struck out trying to add factory fog lights for better visibility so I'm wanting to know if this amp add on is going to work out easy? I actually don't want to add an aftermarket amp. If I can't add an oem one fairly easily I won't do it at all. Just wanna know what's involved? I have a 98 Factory service manual and it doesn't even have a wiring diagram for the amp, just the radio and speakers.

 

From what I have seen, the premium sound radios have more amperage to begin with. The amps I have seen were only used to drive the subwoofer on the Mach 460 sound system in one I have. Hope this helps.

 

Have you upgraded from the factory speakers yet? It's well worth the investment.

 

I actually found a radio with rds/cd/cassette today at a salvage yard. There was like 20 last time I went. I luckily found one in the trunk of a 1999 Ford Explorer 2 Door. I need to change out my cd/cassette in my 98 Ranger because the seek button is broken or stuck. If you press the clock button it will already change the hour without pressing anything else. And you can only scan the cd tracks backwards. So I grabbed the rds/cd player today from the Explorer. I didn't bother to look at the amp or if it was still there. The radio was clean and the buttons were firm. I put it in my Ranger in the parking lot because I also had to get the antenna extension cable to get my radio working. Well when I turned on the new/used cd player it didn't have any display. The radio itself worked great. It had strong sound out of all four speakers and the radio stations worked. It just didn't have a display. I noticed an extra plug in the back with a single gray wire so I took it too. Turned it out it's for the speed sensing sound. So I researched the issue and it looks like it could be the power board in the radio. I took my old one apart but it's different. I see they are about $40 on rockauto. But I want to know is that pretty much all it could be? It works great other than no display. Or is the connector different on the Ranger and that's why it's not giving me display? The radio does say Mach on the bottom but does this have a built in amp? It looks like it. Its part number is FB7F-18C868-AD. It has a black amp kinda piece on the back of the radio unlike my other cd/cassette player that's in my Ranger already. Will the rds function work when I get the display working or is it wired separate? I didn't see any separate wires for that function on the wiring diagram.