Easiest way to change wiper motor

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LImopar

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Ronkonkoma New York
I have to change the wiper motor in my 70 Dart. I am trying to remove the middle portion of the fake wood dash so that I can get the radio and heat and A/C controls out of the way so I have a straight shot at the bolt that holds the linkage onto the motor. I feel like a moron but I can't get the dash surround out. What holds the fake plastic wood to the dash?. Is there an easier way to change motor?. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
I believe the wiper motor has 3 bolts/nuts you have to take off from the engine compartment. You also have to take off the motor arm inside, under the dash. As for taking apart the fake wood dash... I don't think that is necessary.
 
I know on mine all i had to do was unbolt from firewall and i was able to pull it out enough to detatch the clip
 
evryone does things differently. I remove the ashtary hanger, lower the radio and work through that opening with a long extension and socket to remove the wiper pitman arm from the motor shaft. The a/c air vent assembly is a nesessary evil when so equiped. But anyway...
If you really wanna pull the plastic bezel you'll need to hunt the nuts on plastic mounting studs going through holes in the dash. If you run across 1 or 2 stripped studs that wont lead the nut off, remove all the others then pull on the bezel to assist the nut travel.
Hope this makes sense. Have fun
 
Thanks for all the info. I will try to do it under the hood first. I was just afraid to put too much stress on any of the linkage when trying to get enough slack to be able to remove the nut that holds it to the wiper motor. One last stupid question. When I get the linkage off and put the new motor in, does the actuater (ie arm that attaches to the the motor) have to be in a specific position or can I just bolt in place however I have enough room to do so. Once again thanks.
 
LImopar said:
Thanks for all the info. I will try to do it under the hood first. I was just afraid to put too much stress on any of the linkage when trying to get enough slack to be able to remove the nut that holds it to the wiper motor. One last stupid question. When I get the linkage off and put the new motor in, does the actuater (ie arm that attaches to the the motor) have to be in a specific position or can I just bolt in place however I have enough room to do so. Once again thanks.
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No. You will be able to minipulate the linkage to fit it. Good luck.
 
The pitman arm can be placed on the motor shaft correct or 180 degrees wrong. IT's best to run the motor to the parked position then attach the linkage accordingly.
I can only hope you dont loose a some little clip. Fingers crossed.
 
pay someone. sorry everyone else hit the real way on the head. but you did say easiest way.
 
RedFish said:
The pitman arm can be placed on the motor shaft correct or 180 degrees wrong. IT's best to run the motor to the parked position then attach the linkage accordingly.
I can only hope you dont loose a some little clip. Fingers crossed.
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Thats how i did mine. I turned it off an on a couple times, to make sure it worked, then put the linkage back on.
Its not hard, but it helps to be a contortionist, under the dash..lol
 
Well I purchased a reman wiper motor from Advanc Auto(Cardone) and when I open the box it looks like a piece of crap. I remove the old motor, change over the gromets, ballast resister and spend the time to mount the motor to find out it is dead. I take the new motor out and remount my old one to make sure everything else is in working order.
So far I am getting juice from the switch to the wire leads that attach to the motor. The ballast resistor appears to be working properly as when the switch is on low speed there is less current running to the motor. When I put the switch on high the current becomes greater. I removed the switch and made sure it is grounded nicely against the metal dash. I have even added an extra ground strap from the motor to the fire wall.
Here is where it gets weird. My old motor will run in both low and high speeds when the linkage is not hooked up. It appears that as soon as the linkage is bolted to the motor the wipers will not move but the motor makes noise. When I disconnect the linkage and move it by hand there is no indication of binding anywere in the linkage. Everything moves freely.
I went back to Advance and they ordered me another motor. Could it be that although my motor seems to turn on and off it is not strong enough to move the linkage with load on it. Could something be stripped internally in the motor. The linkage all looks perfect.
 
To grab a wiper arm and move both wipers and all the linkage means nothing when compared to the torque required for the motor to turn the pitman arm. Its a leverage factor. Anyway... You have binding in the wiper pivots.
Remove the wiper arm or linkage and try to turn just a pivot by hand.
And yes stripped gears will result for binding
 
If you have further issue's, look me up since I'm up the block from you.
 
Thanks Rumble. I picked up the new motor this morning from Advance (second one) and installed it. As per Murphy's Law there was still nothing going on. After about a half hour of trouble shooting I found that the new motor was not grounded properly because of the heavy coat of paint that they coated it with at the reman plant. I had to scrape off an area of paint off the motor housing and the actual ground strap itself as they spayed the entire thing. I then hooked it all up again and THANK GOD the WIPERS WORK. I would like to thank everyone for the help.
Hey Rumble you have to let me know where you live so I could stop by and say hello. I live in Ronkonkoma. Thanks again.
 
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