2006-03-28 removing Kenwood stereo from Ford Windstar

If you need to remove the original ("factory") car stereo from a Ford Windstar, the tools are easily available (e.g. Wal-Mart, about $4). If, on the other hand, you have a Windstar which has already had the factory stereo removed and another one installed, you apparently need to have the tool which is appropriate to the make in question, and they are much harder to find. The only place I was able to locate any was on Ebay:

Since I wanted to get the stereo out today, however, I did a little experimenting based on the shape of the tool shown, and found that a little poking around with some thick wire was sufficient to release the unit.

The general procedure for removing a Kenwood KRC-308S went like this:

1. Remove plastic faceplate and removable control panel from the Kenwood.
2. Poke wire in between stereo unit and holder on right-hand side. Wiggle it around while pulling unit forward (stick your fingers inside the cassette opening. The right-hand side started to seem a little looser, though it wasn't clear; possibly this does not matter.
3. Poke wire in between stereo unit and holder on left-hand side. Wiggle it around while pulling unit forward as before. At this point, the unit suddenly came loose and I was able to pull it out.