Testing Windshield Wiper Motors

[6600DURAMAX]

I tried to zoom in and repost pic

I'm using all the factory harness along with factory switch

The white wire I added was attached to the case screw - thought that would act as my ground

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by 6600DURAMAX

I tried to zoom in and repost pic

I'm using all the factory harness along with factory switch

The white wire I added was attached to the case screw - thought that would act as my ground

Yes, but the "factory switch" is normally grounded when mounted in the dash so yours is not grounded, and it needs to be, or the wiper motor will not work. Install a wire from the body of the "factory switch" to the battery ground and the wiper motor will work.

LockDoc
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[Rick Bollinger]

Thanks for this thread it rocks. I was having trouble with my wipers not homing and when I would ground the motor it would blow a fuse. The body of the motor was always hot even the wiper blades. But thanks to the diagram here I found out that the wire harness plug was put on backwards. Yea it was me. All is good again and moving forward.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Rick Bollinger

Thanks for this thread it rocks. I was having trouble with my wipers not homing and when I would ground the motor it would blow a fuse. The body of the motor was always hot even the wiper blades. But thanks to the diagram here I found out that the wire harness plug was put on backwards. Yea it was me. All is good again and moving forward.

Good deal! glad it is still helping people....

[HO455]

Just in case anyone has an interest on what's inside, here are some photos and a short write up from when I tore a couple wiper motors down last year and put one good one together.

Now on to the task at hand. The wiper motor currently in the WMB been giving signs it's on its last leg. Basically it's slower and louder than ever. So I picked up some used ones hoping to find a good one. After testing I found I had a nice running unit but, the problem was that it had a badly rusted shaft. (Photo #1) There's no way any seal installed on the shaft on the left would ever keep water away from the bearing.

So pulled it apart as well as one unit I had that didn't run. That one had a good shaft but a broken brush on the armature. Perfect candidate to donate a good shaft.

Disassembly involved drilling out the factory rivets on the gear box. Once apart it I noticed a marked difference in grease application when they were assembled. (Photo #2) After some cleaning and reapplying grease it was almost ready to reassemble. Prior to assembly the park contacts needed attention so I used a ignition point file to clean and dress the park contacts. (Arrow points to the park contacts in photo #3.) Unfortunately the photo of the cleaned contacts didn't come out.

To reassemble the gear box I used pop rivets. On the rivet that holds the ground strap I scraped all the old paint away before installing. In addition I put a backing washer on the rivet (Photo #4 see arrow) as well as coating the rivet and ground strap with copper seize to ensure long-term conductivity.

I found the pop rivet backing washers at a yard sale a couple years back. I never knew they were an actual thing even though I had used washers on pop rivets before.

Anyway the unit has tested good and a new seal ordered, and now I have finally got it installed it works much better than the old one.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

Just in case anyone has an interest on what's inside, here are some photos and a short write up from when I tore a couple wiper motors down last year and put one good one together.

Thanks for the great addition to the thread! The more information posted the more helpful the thread becomes....

[HO455]

Glad to be helpful. And thanks to you for starting the thread! I definitely used it when it was time to test the reassembled wiper motor.