Replacement of Driver Side Wiper Motor

[jerryk96GTS]

Guys,
The driver's side wiper motor on my 8000 mile 1996 GTS has stopped working...the passenger side blade/motor cycles fine...low speed/high speed etc. but the driver side blade just twitches/trys to turn but doesn't. Pretty irritating that the motor appears shot when it has been turned on maybe 5 times in its 6 years of existence and never in the rain. My question is have any other Viper folks experienced the same wiper motor problem? Does it sound like a bad motor and would anyone have the Dodge Part Number for a '96 GTS driver side wiper motor? How expensive is a replacement motor and what dealer would you get a new one from? Thanks in advance for any help.

Jerry Kircher
1996 GTS

 

[Don Hiltz]

Jerry,

The same thing happened on my wife's 300M. It was really simple to remove the small cap covering the base of the blade arm (at the shaft) and tighten the nut with a socket wrench. It's about 1/2" or 9/16" as I recall. Replace the cap and it works like a charm.

Additionally, I feel certain that there is only one motor.

Don

 

[Viper Wizard]

Jerry,
It may not be the left motor bad! The right motor has the brains in it. Do the Test for wiper motors from the service manual. If you don't have a manual, call me and I can fax it to you.

Left Wiper Motor: #4708171 MSRP $489.00
Right Wiper Motor: #4643065 MSRP $472.00

 

[George Farris]

Jerry,

Don may be right. I have "fixed" two of these problems by simply tightening the bolt that holds the wiper arm to the motor. Just lift up the cover to expose the bolt.

 

[GTS Dean]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Viper Wizard:
Jerry,
It may not be the left motor bad! The right motor has the brains in it. Do the Test for wiper motors from the service manual. If you don't have a manual, call me and I can fax it to you.

Left Wiper Motor: #4708171 MSRP $489.00
Right Wiper Motor: #4643065 MSRP $472.00

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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[Tiepilot]

The way you find out what is wrong is by first reading your service manual and performing the resistance checks on the motors. The wiper that is working is the bad one, because it's not sending a signal to the wiper that just twitches.

Dodge in their infinite wisdom placed sensors in the wiper motors that indicate the position of the blade on the windshield so there are no collisions. The blade that operates is not sending a signal to the blade that is floundering.
I tore my car apart and tested every component and connection for voltage drops and impedence. Turns out I had a bad wiper switch and had to pull the steering wheel and get into the column to replace it.

 

[Ron Hickey]

I've had two Vipers and both developed a similar problem -- turn on the wipers and the blades collide in the middle. Fortunately, both times I was able to continue my trip by removing the passenger side wiper arm so the drivers side had nothing to run into. There are two motors and a control module. The first time I had the problem, the Viper tech guessed wrong twice, ordering first a left motor, then a control module, then the right motor. Thanks to one of the motors being on galactic backorder, it took nearly two months to get straightened out. On the way to VOI7 the same thing happened on my 2001 GTS. This time around, we swapped motors from another Viper to determine the culprit motor *before* I took it in for service to avoid the two-return-trips experience. Fortunately, both times were covered under warranty. $400 wiper motors are another good reason for an extended service contract.

You guys with garage queens that haven't ever seen a drop of rain probably can't relate to all this.

 

[Vip-RT10]

Jerry, same thing happened to me, replace the passenger side motor. This is after changing and tightening everything all over the place. Turns out that the motor that seems to work fine doesn't get the signal that the driver's side does. It basically doesn't care about what the driver's side is doing. Tell us the verdict please. Do a search and you'll see that I posted the same prob and solution a while ago.

 

[Viper Wizard]

Jerry,
The pages I faxed you, did they help?
We want to know.

 

[pvandusen]

Hi Viper Wizard, I am having a problem with my driver side wiper, working irradically. I would like to do the test for the wiper motor on the left side. I don't have a service manual - can you scan the information from the service manual and email them to me? [email protected]

 

[Grisoman]

Surely the motor can be cross-referenced to a less expensive minivan application or such? I can't believe Dodge would develop a whole new motor just for the Viper.

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

Hi Viper Wizard, I am having a problem with my driver side wiper, working irradically. I would like to do the test for the wiper motor on the left side. I don't have a service manual - can you scan the information from the service manual and email them to me? [email protected]

Chuck (Viper Wizard) doesn't post here much anymore Give him a call 914-763-3136.