Burned Up My Windshield Wiper Motor - Pull Dash?

[BCgee]

Sometimes you do a bonehead move and really regret it...

Soon as I finished building a roof rack this weekend I parked the van with the slow speed wiper relay ON due to light snow. Being early season I didn’t think to pull the wipers away from the windshield even though we were expecting snow. This, friends, is the boneheaded move.

Next morning I turned on the van and let it idle some time, both for the svx to warm up coil packs and thinking defrost would melt the wiper blades which were frozen to the windshield. I pulled away pleased to have a mostly defrosted and clear window but didn’t think to check the wiper relay position. Soon I noticed a burning smell but played it up to turning on the hot foot heater throw that AM, and drove on. A noise by the dash started, the burning smell got worse, and I pulled over freaking out about heater implosion.

Took a minute to realize that the issue was the wiper motor, located dash R, was burning up because the wiper relay switch had been left on since I started the van but wipers had been frozen to the windshield. Doh!

After freeing the wipers from the windshield I tried the wiper toggle - nothing. The noise is now gone and smell is likewise gone, but I’m pretty sure my boneheaded move destroyed the wiper motor and I can now plan on removing the dash and replacing the motor. DOH!

Feedback appreciated on my deduction - have I likely blown up the wiper motor? If so, am I likely looking to replace just the motor or is there something else in the wiper linkage that could’ve broken and should be preemptively ordered for the repair and replace project?

Experience and advice from those who’ve done the wiper motor R&R is much appreciated. I’ve never pulled the dash either, so here goes another right of passage. Doh!
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1987 SVX Syncro Hightop

[uberaudi]

I'm sure you've already checked your fuses as it should be a protected circuit. I've had fuses melt but never pop, and this could be your case as well.
Most likely it's the wiring on the way to the motor but you won't really know until you pull the dash and start tracing. I don't believe the wiper motor is completely accessible with the dash intact.

While the dash is out, replace those wiper lines, r&r the hvac foam, pop in a new heater core, yada yada yada. Lots of fun to be had!

If it is the wiper motor is kaput, I've got one out of that gray parts van with your name on it.
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'84 Adventurewagen 1Z Tdi, '89 Tintop ABA, and a 86 Syncro tintop WBX.

[MarkWard]

Certainly more investigation is needed, but I think with some patience you can remove the wiper motor from the wiper assembly with the dash in place.
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[BCgee]

[BCgee]

[DuncanS]

These are some photos I took of my spare.

Both of these shots are from the front view of the car. In other words hidden from what you can see when the glove box is out.

These photos show what you could see if you whack the top off the dash.

And why I can.

Bottom line here. If you could get the nut and three bolts out from behind the motor which would be tough, I have no idea how you could ever get them back on. So that doesn't look good. However, note the motor points down, so maybe it's possible to take the guts out of the motor in situ and replace that? Also doubtful and what if it's not the rotor? But I would first take a hot lead from the positive of the battery and touch it to a needle driven through the green/black wire. If the motor jumps or makes any kind of noise, it may be OK and could be a bad wire. I don't try to find the fault with a bad wire. Just abandon the bad one and run a new one documenting it on the correct Bentley page. I noticed that Bentley 97.135 and 97.217 have the same circuit diagram so assume most years were unchanged. Look at the diagram and check to see which lead is supposed to get power depending on the switch position an see if there is power at the motor when there is supposed to be.

Although taking out the dash is a pain, especially the first time, uberaudi is correct. There are a ton of things behind the dash that need replacing after 30 years. Does your front heater blower motor work without complaining?

[Gnarlodious]

Give that glass a good treatment of Rain-X and the water slides right off. Will get you by until you fix the wipers.
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Vanagon ’83 diesel AAZ w/Giles injection, 5spd 4.57R&P+TBD and a '78 diesel Rabbit

[skills@eurocarsplus]

honestly, i'd pull the dash.

my first vanagon dash pull I had it out in 15-20 mins. it was stock and not festooned with gauges etc.

but...I do this for a living and have had dashes out of 100k cars for evaps/heater cores so...i'm not scared.

I really don't see how you could reasonably do this and time the wiper arms to land in the park position without wanting to put a bullet in your head.
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[BCgee]

[/quote]Bottom line here. If you could get the nut and three bolts out from behind the motor which would be tough, I have no idea how you could ever get them back on. So that doesn't look good. However, note the motor points down, so maybe it's possible to take the guts out of the motor in situ and replace that? Also doubtful and what if it's not the rotor? But I would first take a hot lead from the positive of the battery and touch it to a needle driven through the green/black wire. If the motor jumps or makes any kind of noise, it may be OK and could be a bad wire. I don't try to find the fault with a bad wire. Just abandon the bad one and run a new one documenting it on the correct Bentley page. I noticed that Bentley 97.135 and 97.217 have the same circuit diagram so assume most years were unchanged. Look at the diagram and check to see which lead is supposed to get power depending on the switch position an see if there is power at the motor when there is supposed to be.

Although taking out the dash is a pain, especially the first time, uberaudi is correct. There are a ton of things behind the dash that need replacing after 30 years. Does your front heater blower motor work without complaining?[/quote]

Appreciate a look at the assembly: helpful. I agree that i need to remove the dash to truly work on the wiper array and access the motor. I tried to take a look via the OEM glovebox to no avail: my hands could access squat. I also agree the wiring looks straightforward; a friend is giving me a spare motor so i'm going full in and just replacing as i expect corrosion and resistance melted something plastic around the motor and it is kaput.

BTW - innovative dash modification. I like the woodworking.

Gnarlodious - Rainx is a good fallback for the meantime - cheers!

Euro- wish you lived in Bozeman so I could feed you beer to help with the dash removal. Anyhow, dash removal is officially on the calendar. My front heater doesn't have funky sounds and does pump out heat presently so not intending to buy new and replace. I will plan to replace washer fluid tubing and my HVAC lines while in there.

Onward!
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1987 SVX Syncro Hightop

[vanis13]

[MarkWard]

Look at page 92.2 in the manual. It looks like you can remove the entire assembly without removing the dash. I pulled a complete assembly from an 87 that was destined to the crusher. It's a little perplexing, but all of the fasteners were accessible.
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[BCgee]

Follow Up:

A Good Samaritan fellow Vanagon owner locally shared a wiper motor he salvaged. I pulled the dash and managed to, with difficulty, R&R the wiper motor without removing the wiper array. Yes, that was some black magic! Wipers are working again; not a fun project but lord knows I’ll never again forget to pull wipers up when any precipitation is predicted overnight in Montana.

Cheers
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1987 SVX Syncro Hightop