I'll admit, this is entirely my fault, just hope I didn't screw it up too bad so here's the story:

First good snow of the year here, and stupid me forgot my snow/ice scrapper at home (living 600 miles away at college) so I tried to use my whippers to clear the snow off the windshield. Well I heard the motor run but saw no movement, tried again latter and same thing, third try nothing not even the motor. After a while the car finally heated up enough to melt off the snow and I went and got a scrapper to break off the ice. The whippers were cleared, but now don't move at all, I can't even here the motor. I moved the whippers manually some to break up the ice, maybe that was something I'm not supposed to do?

I hope I just blew a fuse but it is cold and dark out now so I'll check tomorrow, but if it's not what else could it be short of me potentially killing the motor? If it is the motor anyone have experience replacing one and have suggested brands?

 

Being in that system, i doubt it can be anything too bad. It could even be that the wiper motor is old and fussy and doesn't like how cold it is. Cars do funny things when there is snow, ice and cold. I have looked through the cowl panel on mine and it should be the same as yours but don't hold me on this, i think replacing it just involves taking the cowl panel off.

Be very careful because it will be extremely cold and brittle. That should be the hardest part. There is probably a few small bolts holding it on to the firewall. Unplug it, Unbolt it, unbolt the linkage to the two arms on the end of the motor. and then you just repeat the process to install it. In my experience, two of the best GM brands are AcDelco and Dorman. Either one of those will work. Let me know if you figure it out

 

check the fuse first, then get back to us.

 

Fuse looked good, only found one though, couldn't find any fuse on the diagram for the box in the engine.

I went to the local scrap yard and they already had a couple pulled so I grabbed one from them. Got to wait for the weather to let up a bit since I don't currently have access to an indoors facility. I looked through my repair manual and the only hard part seems to be removing the cowl panel.

 

Yeh all my experience with wiper motors has been pretty easy. The hardest part is getting to them. This is probably a job you would like to do in a garage so you can have it be a little warm for you. makes the cowl less fragile too. For you it is 15 years old, mine is 21 years old lol

 

Replaced the whipper motor and 5 hours latter the job is done. Here's a step by step for those who may want to know. I used a haynes repair manual since I couldn't find a video.

Disconnect the battery, not sure if needed but better safe then sorry.

A) Cowl must be removed to get to 1 bolt, yes ONE BOLT (hardest one too)!

........1) Remove the whipper arms, just one bolt on each, take it off and the arms come off. You may need to pry a bit.

........2) Remove the ends, these are the solid black pieces of plastic on both sides of the cowl. There is one what looks like a screw. The screw is plastic s*** and stripped on me immediately. Once the screw is out take a flat head screwdriver and pull out the tab (little circle thing thing the screw was actually in). If you strip the screw, take a flat head and wedge between the screw head and the circular tab and pry up enough to get needle nose pliers at it. Once you can do this just pull up. The ends also have a tab like thing that connects to the body of the car on the fender side mine came free with a good pull up.

........3) The center piece has the same screw set up, remove them just the same. Some are under the hood, some not. Once all the screws are out the cowl comes free very easily. I had the hood up to remove the cowl.

B) The motor herself

........1) This is the bolt that gave me the most trouble of the 4. If you're lucky it will come free with little trouble. Under where the cowl was you'll see the whipper linkage which if you move it will move the whippers. Follow this back to the motor. On the motor there is a bolt that holds on the linkage, remove this bolt (best of luck to ya). I ended up taking it to Autozone to get some help here. We took vice-grips to hold the linkage still and then a wrench to undo the bolt which is LEFTY LOOSEY. This bolt will put up a fight.

........2) Detach the linkage from the motor. You may think this is the easy part, so did I. If you can't don't fret just yet, ignore it, there is another way I'll mention later.

........3) The motor has 3 other bolts, two at the top and one below that I have not found an easy way to see. Remove these bolts. I'd recommend starting with the bottom one first. The way I got it was putting one hand on the side of the firewall I could see and just feeling for the head of the bolt in the engine compartment. Best of luck it is a pain to find. The other two should come free pretty easy.

........4) If the linkage was not detached find a buddy cause this is the last hope I can give ya and it needs 2 people. Have one person hold the whipper linkage and the other pull hard on the motor till it comes free. Mine came free after a few good tugs.

........5) Disconnect the power. The power cable is on the passenger side of the motor on the top. Lift the tab and pull on the plug gently, it will come free easy if you did this right.

........6) Congrats the motor is removed!! Install is the reverse, although I'll tell you this, attach the drivers whipper before the cowl. Then test the whippers. I had the whipper linkage off 180 degrees, so it reset the whipper all the way up and whipped down then up. To correct this remove the bolt on the whipper linkage, push the whipper down to the off position and then reconnect the linkage to the motor.


I'll be completely honest, I couldn't get the bottom bolt for the motor back on. I gave up on it and left it with just the two. It doesn't seem to move much with the bottom one missing. Also a few of the tabs for the cowl got launched, so they're gone forever. Best of luck, I hope this helps.

 

Nothing like a good whipping LOL

 

Glad you were able to get everything swapped out and buttoned up. Having properly functioning wipers is a very important safety item.

Just need to get his off my chest.

Whip(per):

verb (used with object), whipped or whipt, whipping.
1. to beat with a strap, lash, rod, or the like, especially by way of punishment or chastisement; flog; thrash:

Wiper:

noun
1. a person or thing that wipes.
2. the thing with which something is wiped, as a towel, handkerchief, or squeegee.
3. windshield wiper.

I apologize. It was driving me nuts.

 

I just died laughing lol