98 Taurus Rear Defrost Switch

I took my car in for service as the rear defrost was not working. The technician determined that it was the switch found in the radio console. However, after searching part numbers, the switch only comes with the radio and not separately. This means that you would have to buy a new radio to fix the problem. Incredible!!! It is possible that a wire is loose or broken off this switch. They didn't remove the radio during the troubleshooting.

My questions is, would it be possible to take a switch off of an earlier model Taurus or another Ford and make this work???? It may have to be mounted somewhere else, but this isn't a big deal.

Any thoughts?

They didn't remove the radio to check it? Now that's kind of incredible. Just go to autozone or another car parts store, and ask for the tools to remove a ford radio. (they're like 3 bucks). Just insert the tools into the little holes on the sides of your radio/faceplate, and it slides out. You can see for yourself if there is a wire loose.