How to fix your rear wiper motor assembly

[Miata_Mike]

How exactly does that shaft come out? Should I put the wiper nut back on the shaft and tap it to the inside with a hammer?

I might add that I have tried this with no luck yet. Seems to me if the shaft were to come out with the 2 gears still attached, that this might be what is needed.

I am told this was done to this truck once before, but it seems stuck tight!

 

[Ornery]

Just did this chore a few weeks ago. It was the shaft seized in bore as well. You should be able to use a vise grip or something to force the shaft to spin. It will come out of the bore with some coaxing. Once I had mine out, I spun it in a 1/2" cordless drill, and used 40 grit paper to grind the diameter down a bit. It still had the gear segment attached, so it was a little awkward. Polished it with finer paper, greased it and threw it back together. Did the same thing as you other guys trying to test it with the gate open, which won't work.

I don't know if I pulled the original out or not at 87K, but it looked like Chinese junk to me.

 

[Miata_Mike]

I managed to get it with a lot of coaxing! Far too much! Next time I will ream it out more. There should be a brass bushing in there. How hard could that be for an American to make?

 

[Ornery]

The tolerance on that bore is Swiss watch close. No need for that. I didn't happen to have a perfect, oversize, metric reamer, or jig bore around, so reducing the spindle diameter was the easier option. The rest of the unit looked pretty cheap. If it sold for $60 or so, it would be acceptable, disposable, wear item quality.

 

[Runkster]

Thanks!

I did the same as the first poster. I pulled the back cover off the motor (4 Phillips screws). (Pay attention to the orientation of the brass contactor plate on the gear inside the motor, it will have to be put back in at the same position) I then tapped the shaft out with a soft mallet hitting the end where the wiper arm was attached. It only took one tap and came right out.

The shaft had a small grove worn in it that I sanded down and then polished out using 400/600/800/1200 sand paper. It was assembled with some antisieze and is working perfectly again. Thanks for the tip. $0 spent on an easy repair.

For those who have not done this yet, to remove the door panel take out the two screws by the inside door handle/strap and remove it, then pop out the panel clips from around the top of the window frame (I believe there were 5 clips). I used a trim tool for this but I'm sure a long enough screw driver would work. The bottom half of the panel below the window has plastic hooks molded into the panel on the inside. Once you have the clips popped out on the top of the window frame, the bottom of the panel just needs to be lifted upwards towards the window and will come right off.

 

[CT Explorer]

Rear Wiper Once again

Once again my rear wiper motor seized up. Having done this a little over three years ago I knew I could do it again. Found the shaft was totally dry and some rust in the bushing. Cleaned it out as before but this time instead of using NevaSieze I'm trying some lithium grease. Works great again.
As for construction I agree the tolerances are too tight and mine had a sticker boldly stating "Made in China"

 

[Kopykat]

Thanks for the write up. Helped fix my wiper that wasnt working when i bought the truck.

 

[Scorpion8]

My rear wiper just quit working but will still creep at points. I'm going to give this a try asap. LOVE being able to find info like this here.

 

[Explorer_PL]

At 200k miles mine also stopped again. I did it about 70k miles ago so I guess it falls under "periodic maintenance"

Cleaned it and greased it and all is good.

 

[Scorpion8]

I just completely tore my motor down tonight and lubed it with synthetic all-weather gun grease. Works on the bench just fine, so it'll get re-installed tomorrow. Thanks for this thread!!!

 

[Stuart little]

Worked for me as well, thanks for the instructions

 

[Themightyquinn]

My rear wiper stopped working on my 07 EB, but also the rear wiper sprayer is not working. I faintly hear a click from the wiper mechanism when I turn the wiper switch up for the wiper and also down for the wiper/sprayer. Since the both features of the switch are not working, am I looking at a bad switch, a bad wiper module, or something else?

 

[Themightyquinn]

Fuse. It was a fuse. A 25 amp fuse located in the battery junction box. And just my luck, it is the only 25 amp fuse in either of the two fuse boxes.
So the clicking noise was the relays being activated by the multifunction switch, but since the fuse was blown, there was no electrical current flowing to the wiper motor or the washer motor.

 

[Rakun12]

Rear wiper motor rebuild

I am having the same issue with my 02 Mountaineer. I know that's not in the year of this forum but I thought I would give you guys a try since this isn't being discussed in my year range. I have the motor pulled out of the rear glass hatch but it was really corroded. I rounded off the jam nut that screws onto the wiper gear housing shaft. I'm hoping someone can tell me what size it might be if they have kept the same design up through the years. From what I have read it sounds the same. I took the jam nut off with a 23mm wrench. It measures 5mm thick. When I caliper the threads on the shaft housing I get around 17.5mm. That's really close to 11/16" but everything seems to be metric on this unit. It looks to be fine thread. Anybody happen to know the size? I'm in need of a new one. Thanks for any help here.

 

[damnford]

my rear wiper motor died on my 91 explorer. i am trying to figure out how to disassemble it. do i tap it from the inside or the outside?

 

[michael loibl]

My 2006 rear wiper is still going trouble free at 160,000 miles. Pretty salty here in north jersey in the winter, so maybe I got a good one.

I still have one original rear hub bearing too, other three were changed once each