Rear wipermotor help!

[Oden Cortez]

Hi all,

I have a 2000 Explorer. The rear wipermotor hasn´t been working since I bought the car and I haven´t been able to figure out what´s wrong.

I have power- 11,something, volts so I just bought a replacementmotor but no success.

I´ve read in the Haynes manual that the circuitbreaker for the Rear motor is behind the gloveboxcompartment but I can´t find it. Anyway it can´t be that one since I have power, right?

Coulkd it be the relay? I don´t know which one to change! My manual seams to be for another car because the fusebox and manual have different positions for the fuses/breakers.

One more thing: The lamp for "open door" is lit constantly, most probably because the trunkdoor is bent and doesn´t close 100% correct. Can this be of importance in this case?

Can anyone point me in the right directions?

Thank you for taking your time to read.

Regards
Olle

 

[delexploder]

The latches on the hatch and glass have to be in the fully closed position for the wiper to work , if you use a screwdriver to trip the catches it should work , if still no go then look at the switches inside on the latches ,

 

[CDW6212R]

Ditto, the door ajar lights up when any of the door latches or either hatch latch isn't fully engaged. Usually that the striker bushings broken or missing(or the wrong too large size put in).

 

[koda2000]

As stated above, when the system thinks the hatch or hatch glass is open the wiper will not function. It could be you have a switch that's broken and is not working. The switches are located in/near the latches.

Note: Even if you can get the rear wiper to function, you will not be happy with its performance. There are things you can do to improve it, but it's just a poor design. That's why wiper motors are now attached to the rear window and not the metal lift-gate.

 

[CDW6212R]

Ditto, and one other thought. There were two blade lengths, 14" and 15", don't use the longer one. The 14" wiper works fine and doesn't run off the glass as far/bad. My 93 and 98 trucks worked great, though the hatch is scratched a little.

My new 98 truck didn't work, and I removed the wiper arm completely(I've got a 2003 glass to go on(wiper in glass)).

 

[Oden Cortez]

Thank you all for fast and valuable replys. I will check the latches and switches right away! I know there is tape on one of the striker bushings..

I´ll be right back..

 

[CDW6212R]

The Dorman 38445 striker is the right door unit that most parts stores carry. I think all of the HELP section bushings in a variety pack(4) for Fords, includes the two hatch bushings, which are slightly different. The pair in those which are too big, fit the older pre-80's Ford doors.

 

[Oden Cortez]

Ok, good to know.
I'll probably have to get new strikers because the bushings are completely gone
A question though;
If closing the latches with a screwdriver would work, why are the bushings important?

Once again thanks.

/Olle

 

[SupaSwope]

It was a long process to get my rear wiper to work. First like yourself my back hatch didn't even open. I replaced with a new hatch from the junkyard and it worked but was still bent somehow and didn't close right but well enough to get the door ajar light to work correctly and interrior lights etc.

Next I had forscan app open and sall the rear wiper up and down replys were missing. I replaced those and now it would turn on but the blade would not move.

I had replace the motor once from one from the junkyard, so I decided to open it up for the heck of it to see why it was running but not working unless you started it by hand. It turns out the motor drives a worm gear that turns a plastic cog gear. And what happens is when the wiper gets stuck that plastic will get ripped to shreads by the metal worm drive.

So I went to the junkard and took apart about 20 explorers/mountinner wiper motors for the cog gears and I only found 2 good ones. They were all broke right there. Very high failire point.

Even after getting it to move when switched on, I then had to use a torch to heat up the arm to bend it to touch the glass. Also I had to set the wiper that mounts to the stud at a 25 degree or so angle so it always starts and ends on the very tip of the bottom of the glass. So the wiper Is not dragger across the glass and worn down and wont brake the plastic gear trying to get over the glass. Because it wont if you bend the arm to touch the glass. So now you have to move the wiper arm lift the wiper arm when opening and closing the glass. Also the rubber stud that holds the arm when it goes to rest had to be turned upside down, along with the rubber stop on the arm having to be modified for the angle by heating it up and bendind it.

It all works now. But it was an incredbly long process to get to fuction correctly. But the wiper works great now and use it every time it rains. As hetic as all that sounds, the only difference in day to day is lifting the wiper to open the glass.

 

[Oden Cortez]

ouch.. !

I have actually opened one of mine too and it looked alright inside. I will continue to investigate this annoying problem and post any progress. Or lack thereof..

Thank you for helping out.

 

[koda2000]

Once you get the motor to run, the next issue you will no doubt have is is that the wiper blade only contacts 60%-70% of the rear glass. This is because the motor is mounted in rubber grommets on the thin sheet metal of the lift-gate. This causes the force of the spring of the wiper arm to twist the motor in it's mounts. If you look at the rubber boot where the motor's stud sticks through the lift-gate, you'll see that it's pushed to the left, where it should stick out straight from the center. After a while the motor take a permanent set, then the geometry of the wiper arm to the glass is thrown off when the blade is on the passenger side. I've read about and tried several supposed fixes for this, but I find that the only one that worked pretty well for me was to cut the stops on the wiper arm (with my Dremel tool) to allow the arm to get closer to the glass. I also get better results by using an expensive Bosch Evolution rear blade, cheap blades tend to get stuck in the gap between the glass and lift-gate, once the arm tension on the left side is increased. I find that after cutting 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch off the wiper arm stops I get 90%-100% blade coverage on the rear glass. I've made this mod on 4 Expl's/Monty's with the same success rate.

 

[Oden Cortez]

Spot on Koda2000!

I got the motor to work. (it was nothing wrong with the one I already have..)
I simply closed the latches by hand and the door ajar-light went out.
The motor started working, wiping about 30% of the glass when it didn't get stuck under the glass, haha!

I remember this from my last Explorer. Same problem. Sh**-design!

Anyway.. good thing I have a Dremel and a blowheater.

VDW6212R, does the 2003 glass fit the 2000 Explorer? Does the whole liftgate fit? Maybe I'll get one of those.

/Olle

 

[koda2000]

I don't believe the '03 glass will fit a Gen II. @CDW6212R might be a good person to ask about this. He seems to be up to something regarding mounting the motor to the glass.

 

[CDW6212R]

I have a 2003 Sport hatch glass, which is the same 2nd gen body. The wiper went into the glass in mid 2002. I haven't put it in yet, there are others who have, with some odd rewiring(the wiper has one less wire, and doesn't "park" like the earlier models). You won't easily find that late 02 or 03 glass, but it's a decent solution long term.

 

[Oden Cortez]

Ok. I guess I´m stuck with my stuck wiper for now

Thank you all for great help.

/Olle

 

[delexploder]

Here is a simple fix , wish i could take credit but a friend of mine did this to his mountaineer last Sunday and its so simple and works , the first pic is looking through the back window and down on the top foot of the motor mount , remove the rubber grommet ,push the foot down and away from you so it looks like this and use a self tapper , i used two , the second and third pics show the shaft that the wiper arm mounts to , before and after looking down on it , its sucked in and aimed better , i now have full contact through the whole range , works like its supposed too

 

[Oden Cortez]

Great!

I will do this as soon as I get My liftgate properly aligned.


For some reason there is a gap between the gate and the rest of the body. My plan is to heat the hinges and bend them with a vice, inwards and downwards.
Anybody tried something like this?

I went to the junkyard yesterday and got a pair of strikers and and a pair of hinges from a -97 in case it goes south..

 

[CDW6212R]

The hinge bolts have a very small amount of adjustment when loose. Try only loosening the hinges first. Check those hinges well also, if you think one is bent, they are still available. I bought four recently, since deciding my right hinge of this 98 is tweaked. It's been eating the right striker bushings, and I just lost the old original I put in from my Mercury. So I think I'll have to replace that hinge sooner.

 

[Oden Cortez]

Ok, will do..

 

[Cowboytrukr]

Here is a simple fix , wish i could take credit but a friend of mine did this to his mountaineer last Sunday and its so simple and works , the first pic is looking through the back window and down on the top foot of the motor mount , remove the rubber grommet ,push the foot down and away from you so it looks like this and use a self tapper , i used two , the second and third pics show the shaft that the wiper arm mounts to , before and after looking down on it , its sucked in and aimed better , i now have full contact through the whole range , works like its supposed too]

Thanks for posting this. I did my ‘99 over the weekend the same way and it now works great. As an additional fix I ground the arm stops back 1/8” as well. Clean glass now.