Ticking noise from black box in rt. rear quarter
 

My elderly father has a 2003 TB EXT 4wd I6 with 31k miles (seldom used the last 7 years). Last time I started it, a loud, continuous ticking noise came from the passenger rear quarter near the tailgate. I pried off enough of the plastic side panel to pull the wire connection to a black box, and the noise stopped. What have I done? Anything vital? Engine still runs fine, but I haven't driven it yet. Need to get it inspected next week.

The radio/CD player seems to drain the battery, so I pulled the fuse on it. Is there a way to stop the CD player from trying to load/eject (what it sounds like) when the car's off?

No you didn't do anything damaging. The black box you pulled the wires off of is a heater box actuator. There are two of them back there. They control the air temp and the air outlet. I had to replace them on my '04 TB EXT, they did exactly what you are describing. They aren't too expensive, and there are a lot of good videos on YouTube about replacing them. Just be sure that when you remove them you are very careful about removing them from the plastic shaft that goes through the actuator. Snap that shaft and the problem just got a lot more complicated. (Don't ask how I know this.)
If your father doesn't need rear heat and air no damage will be done by just leaving it unhooked.

Thank you. I'm not going to mess with it. The A/C compressor hasn't worked for years.
It gets used once or twice a year hauling stuff from the hardware store. To no one's regret, my step-monster keeled over and died getting out of it, so we have to keep it.