Audio Systems: 1996 Mercury Sable radio woes, car cigarette lighter, mercury sable

Question
Hello,

I recently obtained a 96 mercury sable. The radio is this big, clunky ugly round thing with only a cassette deck. I have a tape adapter to use with my ipod, only the "smart cassette" or whatever realizes there is no actual tape, and will spit it out after changing sides a few times.

So, is there any way to disable the smart features on the tape deck. Or how easy would it be to install a cable I could plug into the headphone jack of my ipod?

Thanks

Answer
It's the old reel mechanism at work. That cassette player apparently has an internal sensor that only triggers when there is movement from the feed reel sprocket, then it tells the player that tape is fouling up the capstan. If no tape is moving either of the sprockets then the fail safe mechanism spits out the cassette. Unless your familiar with the inner workings of the radio after removing it and disassembing it (which would be a feat in itself), my suggestion is to look into a portable Brookstone speaker (see link below) that you can plug your iPod into and take it in your car. The Brookstone uses 8 D batteries. You can however, power it from the car cigarette lighter using a stantard 12 volt adaptor cable. The speaker is also wireless so you could either power the transmitter unit with a make shift connector to run on a 9V battery or find a DC to DC adaptor (see link below) that will convert 12VDC to 9VDC. For the second device you will need a  cigarette lighter splitter cable (easily found at Radio Shack).

http://www.brookstone.com/store/product.asp?pid=497362&wid=100&cid=59&sid=688&se...

http://www.powerstream.com/li-chargers-3-cell.htm