2003 F150 Fx4 5.4 L 4x4

Hey fellas,
This morning my wipers quit working, moved a few inches and stopped. I can hear the motor turning so I figure it must be linkage related. Anyone got some tips or a video to help me out before I dig in after work? Patman, glc, bluegrass?

 

Pull the arms, and cowl and take a peek at it.

You can run the motor with the cowl and arms off of it, just make sure you turn it off before you try and assemble it

Pulling the arms is a **** sometimes, so good luck with that

 

So I did some youtube searching and only found one video that i'll describe as sketchy at best.
It did give me a visual of what I was getting into and how it was assembled.

After work I found only one parts store with those silly "windshield wiper bushings" in stock.

My boss was kind enough to give me permission to pull it inside at work. I dug in and got it fixed. As I suspected it was disconnected at the passenger wiper, the arm between the motor and wiper.

I'll post more details after work... time to go

 

So now that I have some time to write a proper reply I'll get into the details of my adventure. Keep in mind I watched the only video I could find (while using my phone) and as I said it was kind of amateur. (really, REALLY amateur)

Before I started this project I had searched the part store websites for my local stores, none had the wiper bushings in stock. So a phone call to Car Quest (which was the closest parts store) and what do you know they had them.

As Patman pointed out it was looking like it would be a pain to get the arms off, they wouldn't budge until I used a hammer!

What I did was loosen the nut till it was just past the end of the threads and tapped on it with the hammer while applying pressure to the arm, they popped loose pretty easy.
(the video I watched didn't include taking it apart, I bet he did a LOT of swearing while preforming this step)

At this point it was time to remove all the screws and clips holding the plastic cowl covers. I did not get them all, the breaking plastic sounds revealed I missed 2 of them. Fortunately they only enlarged the holes they went through.

After I had them out of the way, I removed the plug (press the retaining clip and pull) and the 3 8mm bolts holding the wiper assembly into the cowl.
(In the video as the guy was reassembling everything, he had the hood propped open and had pulled the bolts holding the driver side hinge to the hood, he explained that it had to be closed to remove the wiper assembly... I watched this part twice and said to myself "F that" I'll close the hood, there's the same amount of room without the headache of messing with that.)
So I closed the hood and with a little monkeying around rotating the assembly, out it came. Sure enough the bushing at the passenger wiper point connecting it to the motor had come off.

I took the assembly to the bench so I could replace the bushings and reassemble everything. I did not "clock" the motor after everything was back together because "video guy" left this part out of his description in reassembly. Let's just say that you need to turn the motor until the arms that rotate are all pointed toward the passenger side of the truck (when the assembly is installed in the truck) or you will NEVER get it to drop back into place.

I fought with it until I figured out I needed to clock the arms as described above. It fell right into place, I bolted it down, plugged in the motor and put the plastic back on the cowl.

Before I reinstalled the arms I turned the key on and turned the wipers on and off, for two reasons. First to make sure it worked and Second to make sure the wiper motor was in it's PARKED position. I put the arms back on and tested again, WIN!

Maybe this will help someone else with this problem or another similar problem where the drivers wiper stops working (it's slaved to the passenger so that would be where a bushing failed) Dorman sells the bushings in a complete set of 4 (part# 49451)

 

Awesome! Also beats replacing the whole assembly when it's got serviceable parts available. One less thing in you local landfill

 

I did the same thing, had to pull mine back out. Put the drivers arm on in the right spot. Then everything fell down into the hole with ease.. Now I get to take mine back out again. My wipers stop at the top of the wipe. I have piece on the wiper motor out of time also. This old fart will next time take lots of pics. Even on these easy jobs.
As I had to stop because it got dark. And finish the job up Sunday evening. And when I timed the drives side to get it to fit back into the hole. I did not check the motor piece.. Sad have built engines, but can't get a wiper transmission back together right.
Do you still have a pic showing the right spot for all parts?

 

tnpete I suspect you have the arms on in the wrong spot. What I did was after I put the motor and trans assembly back in was, go into the truck turn the key to the run position and run the wiper motor once or twice and shut it off after the arm studs stopped in the PARKED (bottom of windshield) position. THEN I put the arms on where they should sit when off.
I didn't take pictures, but will see if I can locate one to give an example to you

 

So I stole this pic from a youtube video, in it you can see that the motor linkage connects to the passenger side wiper post. I used a pliers to turn the motor arm (red arrow indicates where I turned it) so the rotating arms (circled in yellow) were all pointed at the passenger wiper post.

This made it easy to re-install the whole assembly.

After it was in, and the wiring was attached I powered it up to run a couple cycles to the stopped position.

Then I put the cowl cover back together and finally the arms on in their normal off position