Howdy all, the wipers on my 2001 3500 stopped working while driving home in a HEAVY rain(when else would it happen, right!). First I checked the fuse, all looked good. Next up I tested for power at the electrical power plug to the motor under the hood. I had voltage at number 1&4 wires in the plug. Next up, I removed the motor and bench tested with my battery charger. Putting the ground on the motor body, the wiper motor operated putting power to wires 1&4. However, when putting the battery charger ground to the motor brass grounding strap, nothing! Its a bad ground!!! Cleaning the brass ground strap with some fine sand paper, cleaning the bolt sleeve with a fine metal file, and cleaning the underside of the bolt with same file and applying some dielectric grease to prevent corrosion and presto, motor works great! I guess this could have been done on the vehicle, but fixed for free works for me! Good luck and drive safe!

 

You don't use your wipers on a sunny day, right?

 

not too many days have gone by here in Kentucky without rain this spring

 

this is great my wipers keep stop working off and on.

where is this part your talking about cleaning and sanding?

thanks

ryan

 

Minor fact: The wiper motor housing serves as the ground, soooooo, the bolts that mount the motor to the frame must be making a good connection. I had the same problem and solved it by simply loosening the bolts, and re-tightening them. I actually found this tip some where in this forum.

 

Major Fact: The wiper motor does NOT serve as the ground. The vehicle CHASSIS serves as the ground thus completing the circuit back to the negative post on the battery.

Also, it's the rear bolt holding the motor to the cowl.

Mopar to ya!

 

Yes, and it does that through the wiper motor housing. That's why the connection to the chassis must be good to complete the circuit.

 

Correct, the motor is not the ground. It is the PATHWAY to ground. As we all know, if the motor was not attached to the cowl, it would not run. Simple right! Thus it needs to be grounded to the cowl. As far as providing a good ground, just loosening the bolt and retightening it, yeah sure, it will work. If I did that, it would stop the very next time it rained! So, I hope to get another 12 years of reliable service by cleaning, sanding, applying dielectric grease ETC!, and generally making a project out of a relatively simple procedure as in providing a good pathway to ground so the wipers work!

Mopar to ya!

 

Since it is "the pathway" to ground then it is the ground path and is therefore ground as far as the motor internals are concerned. There is no ground wire carrying the ground, it is the motor housing that is doing that task. So instead of correcting someone that is trying to help, perhaps you might lay off the semantics and listen.

 

There is a ground wire, or actually a ground strap. It is a brass strap that when put against the steel bolt and steel sleeve on the rear most bolt holding the motor to the chassis making contact to ground. I didn't post originally to hear certain guys on this forum tell me incorrectly how Chrysler engineered (poorly I might ad, the brass to steel connection when a electrical current passes through it produces a galvanic reaction, which is corrosion promoting a poor/no connection) the wiper assemble. I have taken the time to listen, however one reply to my original post has been removed by the modurator apparently for being rather ....nasty. I took the time, spent several hours leaning over and under the cowl/grill, greasy dirt from finger tip to elbows, several ripped open knuckles with blood flowing, time bench testing the above mentioned brass strap, so the next guy like myself can read and say "hey, I can try this easy fix" and hopefully be back on the road safely!
So once again,

Mopar to ya!