Hey, just jumped into my truck to head to school, turned on my wipers to get the snow off, they made it halfway. Crap. So I jumped out, cleared the rest of my windshield off, jumped back in, but unfortunately they still wouldnt work. Checked the fuse, it was fine, swapped it anyway, still doesnt work. What normally goes out when the motor gets overloaded like that from the snow? Its a 95 Dodge Dakota by the way... Any help would be great, thanks.
A wiper transmission??....Yeah, pretty sure the arms are bolted directly to the motor. That'd be pretty crazy if they had a trans! Thanks for the response anyway
A really common problem on 80s-90s Mopar wiper motors is the grounding. They have a small metal strap that's riveted to the mounting bracket, which eventually corrodes to the point where it breaks contact. Before you replace the motor or anything, try running a jumper wire from the body of the motor straight to your negative battery terminal, and see if it works. I've done this on 3 different cars, haven't had to replace a motor yet. :TU:
Well my, "wait it out" move actually worked! When I went and started my truck this morning to head to school the wipers took off from the halfway point they were stuck at last night. I had tried last night turning off/starting my truck serveral times without it working then, so it really doesnt make much sense to me. Oh well, i guess im ok with it! I will definately be checking the ground though, dont need that acting up on me! Thanks, Alex
Well it turns out they actually are still not working, they went from halfway on the windshield back down to the "off" position, then proceeded to not work again... I took the wiring harness off of the motor and used a testing light to check for electricity, of the four wires going into the motor two showed positive electricity going into the motor. The other two didnt show anything, I couldnt get the light to light up using them as positive or negative. The three bolts that are holding the motor in place all light the tester up using them as a ground. This is leading me to think that the wiper motor isnt using the body of the wiper for the ground, is this a good assumption? (Since the tester showed that they were good grounds) So im assuming that the two wires that I couldnt get to light up the test are both ground, and both bad. (though as I type this that seems unlikely) Is it possible that the bolts that are holding the motor in place are just not good enough grounds? I'll try the jumper wire out and let you know how that goes. Thanks again, Alex
Well I used the testing light to go from the body of the wiper to the ground on the battery. The light lit up, so there is juice flowing through the motor, but the motor didnt go. Im guessing at this point that the motor is dead. Seem right? Anyway thanks for the help guys.
In that pic you posted, the lower left mounting bolt has a piece of metal that goes from the bolt to a spot weld on the mounting bracket. That should be your ground. Since the whole assembly has the rubber cushions around the bolt, that piece of metal is supposed to be the conductor from the motor, through the mounting bolt, and to the frame of the vehicle. I believe the other two wires you tested are for the delay/intermitent settings. On my cars, I ended up cleaning a spot really well on that motor bracket and mounting a wire with a ring terminal on each end, using self tapping sheet metal screws. Tap one end into that bracket, and the other end into the firewall or some other part of the body.
