I recently bought my grandfather's old Dakota and while driving it one day the radio and HVAC randomly stopped working. I checked the all the fuses, even the under hood fuse, and they are all good. The radio gets power because I can hear the tape player mechanics when I start the truck. Anyone know what my issue could be?

 

Here is a link to help if you want to try to fix the radio https://www.allpar.com/threads/fixin...ost-1085222574

IDK what the HVAC issue is but if it isn't changing the outlet for the air when you select it there may be a vacuum issue. Oh and there is a blower motor resister. In mine it is on the passenger firewall, a the wire harness plugs into it. Search this site for other info and there is a 95 factory service manual in the FAQ section that may help.

 

I've got a '96 Dakota 3.9L V6 SLT with the very same issue (no radio display and no HVAC controls working). I can press the buttons to alter the vent outputs and I can hear them switching, so vacuum seems to be fine. My issue appears to be all electrical. Any other things to check and was there a resolution to this issue?

 

I got the issue addressed somewhat today. The blower motor would not come on at any speed when operating the fan switch in the dash. I replaced the blower motor resistor and restored the two highest speeds of the blower. I believe the fan switch in the dash is likely to blame for the non-working two lower speeds. I plan to spray some contact cleaner into the dash fan switch tonight to see if there's any improvement..

 

Just as a follow-up, spraying contact cleaner (Caig Dioxit) on the blower motor switch helped and I'm getting at least 3 speeds out of the blower motor now. I also went ahead and vacuumed out the A/C system and checked for leaks. After about an hour of sitting, the gauges still held a steady vacuum state on the A/C system, so I went ahead and charged up the A/C system with 2 lbs of R-134a. The A/C clutch started to engage on & off after getting the 1st can of R134a entered into the system. Everything is now working as it should and it gets ice cold in the single cab truck.

 

Did you get back any radio controls?

 

The radio displayed a station once while I was playing with the blower and charging the A/C. I didn't have the antenna screwed onto it's passenger side post, so I attached the antenna the other day and need to re-test.

 

Well I can't explain it and I'm not saying this is actually the fix but this is what happened for me. After changing a lot of ignition components I got an error code saying the front O2 sensor was reading lean. Finally got around to replacing it. When is started the truck back up I noticed the radio was displaying the time so I turned it on and I had sound. I couldn't pick up a radio station but when I put a cassette tape in it played. I also noticed when I pushed the ac button the compressor would cycle but I didn't have any air. So I changed the resistor and then I had all the fan speeds. I have no idea how or if the O2 sensor was related to my issue but changing that was the only difference. We will see how long it lasts.