My front wipers quit on my 94 Explorer the other day. I looked at the wiring diagram, seems I have two choices (assuming the switch is OK). Does this sound like the motor or the intermittent module?

When I turn the wipers on, they might move once, mostly not at all.

When the wipers are in the "down" position, and I move the switch to slow intermittent, I hear a click from behind the dash (near the ashtray). When I move the intermittent to "fast," the clicking happens faster, and I can feel something with wires attached clicking away behind the dash. Could this be the intermittent module?

When I turn the switch to Low or High (not intermittent), I hear nothing, and nothing moves.

When I try to wash, the wash fluid pumps, but nothing happens with the wipers.

No noise comes from the motor at any time.

What is the best way (other than part-swapping) to troubleshoot this?

 

sounds like the whiper motor needs oiling

 

Your wiring diagram will probably show a wire going directly from the high setting on the switch to the wiper motor. If you have voltage on that wire the motor is shot or not grounded. The motor grounds thru it's mounting bolts.

 

Good catch. I do see that on the diagram. I unplugged the wire from the motor, and tested it on the truck side (coming from the switches).

When the switch is on high, it does get juice from the DB/O wire (high) and the W wire (low/intermittent).

When the switch is on low, it gets juice only from the W wire (low/intermittent).

Seems like the motor is toast. I'll take it apart this weekend.

Is it unusual that this went with no warning? BTW, the truck has 202,000 miles.

 

The wiper motor just failing after all that time and milage isnt uncommon. 200,000 miles is a good run for the motor.

 

At 202K i'd say you got your moneys worth out of that motor. How many more miles are you planning on driving this? I'm at 222K on my 87 Ranger & it's still running very strong so i'm planning on driving it another 222K. Somehow i just cant convince myself to trade for one of these new electronic marvels.

 

I bought it in 1999 with 54,000 miles. I'd like to see if I can get to 300,000!

At the very least, I need it to last until after I get married next year.

The engine and tranny are going along just fine. I haven't had to do too much to the truck over the years, other than routine maintenance (tune-ups, batteries, brakes, etc.).

Lately, other things (like this wiper motor issue, a rear hub seal, etc.) are starting to be nuisances. Guess that's to be expected with the age/mileage.

 

Well, I replaced the front wiper motor last night. All I can say is NEVER AGAIN!!!

Am I missing something really obvious here? I used the Haynes manual as a guide. On the 94 Explorer, the grille does not come off, so you have to remove an access panel on the firewall to reach in and remove a linkage clip. There's so little room to move that my wrist still aches this morning.

One of the biggest problems is that the wipers need to be "up" so that the linkage is far enough to the right side of the truck that you can even reach the linkage clip. The problem is, my motor was dead, so I had to muscle the motor out and remove the nut that connects the motor to the crank shaft.

Then, I was able to upclip the linkage to get the crankshaft out so that I could properly install in on the new motor. (Yes, I tried to skip this step, bad move.)

Here's the real fun part: after I got it all back together, it turns out that the replacement motor came from the factory with the shaft rotated to the "down" position. In other words, my wipers work backwards. When the motor is resting, the wipers are up. When the motor is working, they go down, then up, etc. When the motor is off, the wipers are up.

So, I have to take it all apart again and reverse the crankshaft on the motor. THAT will be fun.

I will NEVER attempt this one again. I wonder what a repair shop would charge for this?

 

Ouch, what a PITA. Are you saying the wipers make their normal sweep and the only problem is where they stop? If thats the case i wonder if you have the right motor. I've never had to mess with a wiper motor, but somehow it does'nt compute that you could fix this by reversing the crankshaft on the motor. Could there be "left and right hand wiper motors" i wonder??
On second thought, I guess reversing the crankshaft would fix this. Good luck with the miserable thing.

 

Ok, got the wipers fixed. Total of six hours over two days, one trip to the parts store, one trip to the Ford dealer (at 3:30 pm Saturday). Only had to jack up the truck twice!

The second time I had to go in, it was a little faster, since I knew all the tool sizes, etc. The first thing I dropped was the access panel cover, didn't make it to the ground. Jacked it up and found it OK.

I took the clip off the linkage, ran the motor until it was in the "up" position, turned off the key, took out the motor, reversed the crank, replaced the motor, moved the wipers up so I could reach the linkage, attached the clip and fired it up.

The (**^%#$%^& clip came off the linkage, so I had to cram my swollen wrist back in there to reattach it. Of course, I then proceeded to drop that into the engine, which didn't come out, and I couldn't find it after jacking the truck up and looking from above and below for 15 minutes.

Thankfully, I have a Ford dealer 30 minutes away that keeps their Parts Dept. open until 4 pm on Saturdays. I've never heard of ANY other dealership that does that, for any make of car.

So, I got the $13 little piece of stamped metal (aka, costs less than 25 cents to make), and got it all back together, and everything works just fine...

 

When it comes to replacing wiper motors, you can certainly say that you have been there & done that TWICE. Would'nt you love to strangle that murphy guy (murphys law) Just curious, but does the wiper motor run non stop in one direction or does it oscilate back and forth?

 

The motor runs continuously in one direction. The linkages are set up to transfer that circular motion into linear motion, then the levers on the wipers act to transfer that motion to the circular motion on the windshield. When it's all working, it looks like a back-and-forth motion.

As I said, I'll never attempt that job again!!!

 

Searching through the posts, this is the same problem I'm having with my 91 Explorer, except the wipers still work in the regular hi/low positions, until I try to use the intermittent mode, then it all goes dead until I shut the truck off and hang for a while, then it will work again.

Doesn't look like its an easy job to swap out the motor though.

 

ejscarfo, maybe it's the switch and not the motor since the motor works fine on the high and low speeds. Switch is much easier to replace. That's where I would start.

Mason

 

thanks mason....I decided to go that route too and bought a switch yesterday off of ebay, lets see what happens