Fixed my factory radio!
Link for photo album: https://imgur.com/6TlkynM
My 2012 F150 FX2 sport came with the 6cd Sync radio. No navigation or Sony features. Back in August it popped a few times, then stopped working. The clock would flash randomly, and sometimes the display would change as if it was about to turn on....but nothing.
Research here, YouTube, and forums told me the likely culprit was the Audio Control Module, or ACM. This is Ford's fun name for the actual radio unit inside the dash. I heard horror stories about dealers charging anywhere from $300 to $2000 to fix the issue, or replace the unit. Some shops charge $150 for you to send it to them, and don't guaranty they can fix it. Going aftermarket is an option, but with the new head unit, new bezel, and various peices to tie in all the factory features, you could easily spend $500, 600, 1000.
About a week ago, after months of driving around in silence, I looked even deeper. I saw some posts about bad soldering on the radio's main board. One guy suggested you could fix this by baking the board in your oven at 385 for 8 minutes. In theory, this would "re-flow" the solder on the board. Sounded kind of crazy, but people do this to fix computer components.
I figured, well, what do have to lose. Last night I pulled the ACM out, tore it down and baked my board. Cleaned off the factory flux from the board, put it back together, and my radio is now fixed. Cheers to a free repair. Let's see how long it lasts.