Hi StarquestMan, if you're still around, I have some follow up questions.
I didn't pull the trigger on that one unit for sale that you pointed out. It looked pretty roughed up, and my technical skills in the audio department pretty much extend to turning the unit on and off, so I wouldn't be able to fix it up if it wasn't working proper.
I found two specimens for sale (same vendor on ebay) that look very clean, and at least are described as being in "great working condition". They are on the pricey side, but they look very good and might be worth it if no work is required. The curious thing is that this seller appears to have several of the same units. Maybe he found an old box full of them?
My question is what is the difference between these two models, and the model in the picture in your post (your truck?)?
There is no explanation of the difference in the description (I contacted the seller but haven't heard back), and the only difference I can spot visually is that the first one (J981), has a gray looking display and the lettering is white, and the second one (J982) appears to have orange lettering and display. They are both off in the picture, so it's hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing that one lights up green, for our trucks, and the other one lights up orange, for the Monteros.
Then I zoomed in to your photo to see which model you have (model number is printed right under the display), and it looks to be J987... is that right?
Out of the two for sale I would go for the J981, since I don't want the one with the orange lights, but wanted to see if you knew what the difference between that one, and the J987 you have is.
I ordered one of these radios. Arrived today, installed, and working great.
Posting this in case anyone out there wants to get their hands on a mint early 2nd Gen AM/FM radio (I don't know if later model years had more advanced radios, but it would make sense).
I don't know why or how, but this seller seems to have a few of these original radios. They are not the cheapest, but for anyone looking for OEM equipment in excellent condition, it might be worth it (compare prices and condition to what's on car-part and you'll see what I mean). I'm not associated to the seller, btw.
This is the one I bought (J891), it arrived as advertised, very very clean condition, and everything works. This guy had 3 more of these AM/FM digital radios, as of this posting. https://www.ebay.com/itm/143007966300
Here's a picture of the one I just installed. Just the top part, the cassette player I already had.
Awesome! did the bass/treble/fader/balance knobs work properly? they will do all sorts of weird things if they don't like crackle and loose all bass or treble and if the balance goes out most sound will drop out of one side. that was what mine did. but maybe the J891 has improved potentiometers over the 3 J987 (2 speaker) or J989 (4 speaker) models that i have?
I should add for anyone else that may find it useful, when i checked my 87-88 parts catalog it lists the digital 4 speaker radio for these trucks as being part number MB488544 this is incorrect since it is the orange illuminated J892 used in the Montero/Raider that MrPaco mentioned in a previous post. The radio he bought can be found in Colts and Colt Vistas of similar vintage and so far we haven't been able to figure out what the difference is between these radios and the MB541097 J989 4 speaker ones that came in our pickups and strangely my catalog doesn't even list the MB541097 at all for any vehicles even though i know mine came from an 88' Ram 50. I was talking to MrPaco earlier and I had mentioned that the J891 may have a slightly higher power output to drive bigger speakers in a car or a different EQ circuit board to change the sound output to suit a larger interior but this is just a wild guess.
The bass and treble knobs work properly,they do the job. The sound coming out of it is probably as good as can be expected from a 30+ year old stock radio, it's definitely not a high end stereo, but it sounds very good.
The fader knob works, but I would say that it only takes the power down to about 10% on the opposite speakers to where the knob is turned to, it doesn't silence them completely. The balance knob doesn't seem to be doing anything, sound comes out of both sides no matter where the knob is turned to.
Is it possible that these two knobs are functioning funny because the speakers in the truck are undersized for the radio, maybe?
In any case, it doesn't make a difference, I have no need to balance or fade the sounds from one side of the cab to the other one. Come to think of it, I don't know why anyone would need to do that anyway.
Originally Posted by StarquestMan
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