I pushed the washer switch and the the pump pumped fluid and wipers made one pass and quit.
The wipers won't turn on now.
I checked the fuse ...it is good.
Checked for power at the wiper motor...have power at three of the wires.
4th wire is ground. If I put a temporary ground to that terminal the wipers work. On low or high speed depending which is selected on the wiper switch.
I did a search and couldn't find the answer.
If there is a relay, where is it located?
Could it be the intermittent module that has been mentioned?
Where is that located?

Thanks,
david

1999 dodge van

 

Update:
it's raining here this morning...had to do something.
I ran a temporary ground from the ground terminal on the wiper motor harness.Blew the fuse.
Changed it out and the wipers worked but on high speed.
even the intermittent position would pause but the sweep was in high speed, not low as usual.
shut them off and back on and everything seems fine.

any ideas what i should be looking for?

thanks,
david

 

The body of the motor is ground, not any of the harness wires. I've attached a wiring diagram.

 

Thanks Alloro,
i'll try an additional ground to the wiper motor this afternoon.

david

 

The best thing to do is disconnect the motor from the harness and test between the harness and a good ground that all of the switch positions are providing good power. If that passes then it most likely is the motor. The different wires activate different coils in the motor to adjust the speed. The intermittent functionality (if you have it) is provided by a box under the dash, so when you are testing give the motor time to cycle if you use those settings. The failure of one loop is common, and will cause the motor to jam. if you manually move the wipers with the switch on, you may get a response once you cycle past the dead point. Hopefully grounding the one wire only killed the fuse and didn't muck the harness. Which is why you should never short a fuse plug with aluminum foil(or anything other than the right size fuse)

If you want to test prior to taking out the motor, get the replacement and hook it to the harness and ground the motor casing. If you look at the motor mount, you will see one of the 3 lugs has a metal strap around the rubber grommet between the bolt and the plate the motor is mounted on. a clip lead for jump starting the car works perfectly.

I know taking it out is a pita, have to remove the hood, possible the wiper arms and then the heating/vent intake grill before you can get the motor out. Be careful with the bushings because because those are deal only/yard parts.

 

On a 99 you do have to remove the wiper arms and the intake grill(4 screws), then the motor is right there, but you do not have to remove the hood. (Unless you want to.)

 

I had to order the replacement motor. It will be here at 9:00 AM today.
I'll post what I find.
Thanks for the help.

david

 

I picked up the new motor.
I disconnected the temporary ground wire and was going to test the new motor with the harness, as suggested.
Well, the old motor is now working just fine.
I never disconnected it or anything.
Only thing I can think of is I blew a heater hose last Monday morning. This leak was right under the wiper motor. Maybe it got excessively wet and then finally dried out.
I'm going to carry the new motor with me for a while, just in case.
Thanks for the replies.

david