'98 taurus radio problem

I had a cd player in my Taurus SE, and about a year ago it got stolen. The whole console piece (heat, AC, etc). I finally got around to buying the stock AM/FM Cassette player for my car off ebay, but I can't get it to work. Everything is plugged in (I believe), but the radio and cassette won't get any power. The heat and AC work, and the panel lights up, but the cassette/radio isn't powering up. Is there different wiring because I'm downgrading from a CD player or what? I don't know anything about cars, and I'm too cheap to get it installed properly, so any suggestions would help. Thanks.

Yes it is most likely because of your wireing. Thats why everything but the cassette is working, there should be a adapter/harness you can find, or put your casstte on ebay and get a cd player. Thats what i think

I'd rather have a cassette for Ipod purposes.

Then you should just get a new harness

Does anything about the radio/cassette player work (display, etc)? There may be a fuse in the deck, or the fuse for the Rear Control Unit (RCU) in the trunk may be bad. If the display works but there is no sound, suspect the RCU. If the display doesn't work and the cassette mechanism won't accept tapes, then you have a power issue to the deck as you suspect.

How good are you at tracing wiring diagrams?

-Rod

The display isn't showing up either. I already tried replacing the fuse for the radio, and it didn't do anything. As far as wiring diagrams, I don't even know what that is, so that will give you some insight to how clueless I am about cars.