Can any tell how to remove the CD & Cassette player out of my 98 Dakota?
It's a radio, CD & Cassette player all in one. I think I have to remove the molding around the player first.

Thanks for any help on this..

 

yup, remove the plastic moulding that wraps around the gauge cluster,
it simply snaps into place,
then there should be 2 12mm bolts that hold the radio in, remove those, tug the radio out, and unplug all the wires

 

yeap just like that its really easy

 

This was just covered the other day...


This thanks to another member!
Remove the 2 phillips screws from under the top of the bezel on the instrument cluster. Remove the 3 torx screws under the bottom edge of the knee bolster panel under the steering column, disconnect the plastic retainer for the parking brake release lever & remove the knee bolster panel. It helps to remove the screws holding the instrument column covers and take both halves of the cover out of the way. Then the dash panel will snap out. Disconnect the climate control, passenger air bag switch and headlight switch connectors, put the shifter in 1st gear if you have an automatic transmission and work the panel out of the truck being careful of the hazard switch and be careful not to scratch the instrument cluster bezel. Then just remove the 4 screws holding in the radio and unplug the 2 harnesses and the antenna end.

You will need an installation kit for an aftermarket stereo, and it really helps to have the matching wire harness to connect the new unit to the existing OE radio wire harness. It will take the guess work out of wiring the new radio, plus if you ever sell the truck it will be really easy to reinstall the old OE radio. You can buy both parts at any good car audio shop or at Best Buy. Both together should not cost more than $25.00. Some of the brands of installation kits even have an instruction sheet in the bag with the kit.

The wire harness will be color coded the same as the harness for the new unit. Be sure to connect the blue/white wires together to turn on the OE Infinity amplifier, if you have one. If you have separate tweeters up on your sail panels, you have the Infinity system. The Infinity amp is located in the passenger's kick panel but there should be no need to access it if all you are doing is installing a new radio. Also be sure to insulate the orange and orange/white wires on the harness if your new radio does not have a separate illumination wire. If the illumination wires short out in the dash, you will have no dash lights and need to take it all back apart again to fix it.

Also, you can get a piece of plumbing strap (they may call it a back brace) at the car stereo store or at the hardware store and bolt one end to the back of your new radio and bend it under the radio towards the front, then run a screw thru one of its holes into the horizontal plastic brace under the OE radio location, between it and the area for the climate controls. Doing so will offer more support for the unit, making it less likely to break internally, plus it will be harder for a thief to steal it. Most guys would not take this step, but when I was an installer I always went by the motto, "if I can't find time to do it right, then how will I find time to do it twice?'". Solder and tape or heat shrink your connections, or use crimp connectors properly attached with a quality crimping tool and the new radio should work fine for years.

 

thats for the new dash styles

On my 98 All I had to do was pry around the edge of the trim dont be afraid to pull on it but try to take it easy. Then disconnect the fog light switch(if you have that in your truck) then just pull off then you got 2 bolts and just pull the radio out you will have 2 clips 1 black and 1 gray and 1 separate wire that is the ground and your att cable disconnect all those and thats it.

 

Thanks again, that was fairly painless. It took about 10 minutes to complete the entire job. Since the original stereo has a unique mounting system, I need to find a adapter kit to fit the new stereo in.

 

I bought a radio from a friend that I was going to use but after trying to find a trim ring for it and figuring which wires do what I just said heck with it and got this radio.
I got mine from crutchfield. This is the radio I have http://www.crutchfield.com/p_158GT63...I.html?tp=5684

Its great I love it whats nice about it is it has free shipping,free installation kit and free installation guide. Took me about 30min from start to finish. The hardest part of the entire job is if you want to solder the wires together I did but you dont have to that just insures a good connection. The radio will come with 4 connectors(if you get this radio it will some others might not)anyway 2 that plug into the factory clip and the other 2 plug into the back of the radio and all you have to do is strip the wires and match color to color. I have mine setup with sirius and have a usb drive that holds all my songs and that plugs into the front of the front or I can also plug my cord from my ipod into it a listen to it that way. I only have 2 complaints with this radio the first one is the background colors(blue or green) blue is way to bright for at night and even if you use your dimmer switch it will get better but then you can barely see you gauge cluster so green is really the only color to use and my other complaint is it has a alarm that will beep 6-10 times everytime you shut off the truck you cant turn it off only way to keep it from beeping is to take the face plate off before you turn the truck off(it beeps to make sure you take your face plate off so no one will steal your radio) other than that I love the radio.

 

Does the kit have the mounting hardware for the stereo? If so was it hard to mount?. I ask this because of the unique two bolt mounting system the original stereo had.

Thanks again, it's really helping

 

yes, the kit has the faceplate, you actually install the headunit sleeve into the plate, then you just bolt hte plate to the factory location.
fits like a glove without too much cursing

 

It fit perfectly. All I had to do was take the metal sleeve off put the plastic face plate on then put the metal sleeve back on hook up all the wires and then bolt it back up to the factory position. If you want when I get back home sunday I will takes pics of it if you want me too just let me know.