Radio cuts in and out

Yes. Loose speaker cable attachment in the door-frame can cause this. It seems to happen with annoying regulairty on mine also. Maybe the trials and tribulations of owning an off road vehicle.

I routinely take it by the audio store and they put everything back together again. Last time I dropped it by they mentioned that the speaker had been shaken off of the mount.

I plan to take it all apart sometime and rig up something a lot stronger.

Paul

Both left side speakers (front and back)? If only one, pop off the door panel and check the connector. If both, pull the radio and check the speaker connector block.

=Vic= Bear Gap, PA

My '97 xlt does the same thing! Thanks for the tips for how to fix it. I've noticed putting the window up/down fixes the problem too, so my issue must be in the door panel...lol.

As memory serves (and not so well anymore, actually) there are a couple of rectangular connectors on the rear of the radio, plus the antenna. One generally has power and control wiring and the other goes to speakers or the rear-mounted amplifier. It would be a good idea to check the connections at the amp, too. It is located on the passenger side in the panel at the rear near the tailgate. While you may have some electronic problems inside the radio or amp, connectors are always a good place to start looking for trouble.

=Vic= Bear Gap, PA

Looks like there were 3 radio systems for the '97 Explorer. The base was a simple AM/FM radio with no rear amp, but the next 2 both used a rear amp and the top model had a subwoofer in the same location. The testing sequence looks like this from the service manual:

1. If your vehicle has the rear integrated control panel, jumper C2003-4 and C2003-9 and jumper C2003-2 and C2003-10 to see if that is the problem
2. Check wiring between amp and speakers (usually a connector problem
3. Check wiring between radio and amp (or speakers if no amp)
4. replace radio or amp

Good luck! =Vic= Bear Gap, PA