How to Replace Windshield Wiper Motor 1997-2003 Ford F-150
Created on: 2017-06-23
Learn how to remove the windshield wiper linkage and motor by watching our experts. Follow the steps and do it yourself!
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step 1 :Disconnecting the Battery
- Loosen the negative terminal with an 8mm or 10mm wrench
- Move the terminal off to the side
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step 2 :Removing the Wiper Arms
- Mark the location of the wiper blades with painter's tape
- Pry off the wiper arm cap
- Remove the 15mm nuts from the wiper arm
- Press the wiper arm
- Remove the wiper arm
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step 3 :Removing the Cowl Panel
- Pry up the cowl panel trim button
- Remove the five Phillips screws on either panel
- Lift the hood
- Pry the clip out of the cowl panel ends
- Remove the clips along the weatherstrip
- Remove the weatherstrip
- Remove the panel
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step 4 :Removing the Windshield Wiper Linkage
- Disconnect the wiper motor
- Remove the three 8mm bolts from the linkage assembly
- Place a blanket or covering on the windshield
- Pry the wiring clip closest to the drive side out of the hood
- Pry the hose clip closest to the passenger side out of the hood
- Pry off the clips on the hood strut's upper end
- Pry the upper end of the hood strut out of the hood
- Carefully lay the hood back on the covering
- Tighten the 8mm bolt on the linkage to line the arm underneath the upper bracket
- Pull the linkage out of the vehicle
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step 5 :Removing the Motor
- Remove the three 8mm bolts from the motor
- Remove the three 8mm bolts to separate the motor from the linkage
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step 6 :Installing the Motor
- Insert the motor to the linkage
- Tighten the three 8mm bolts to the motor
- Press the cap to the center 8mm bolt
- Press the arm to the bolt
- Tighten the center 8mm bolt
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step 7 :Installing the Windshield Wiper Linkage
- Insert the windshield wiper linkage into place
- Tighten the three 8mm bolts to the linkage
- Connect the wiper motor
- Connect the negative battery cable
- Tighten the 8mm bolt
- Turn the key to the ON position
- Run the winshield wipers
- Turn them off to center them in the park position
- Slowly bring the hood down
- Clip in the hood struts
- Connect the hose to the hood
- Connect the wire clips to the hood
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step 8 :Installing the Cowl Panel
- Lower the cowl panel into place
- Tighten the clips along the weatherstrip
- Press the weatherstrip onto the panel
- Lower the hood
- Tighten the Phillips screws to the cowl panel
- Press on the trim button
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step 9 :Reinstalling the Wiper Arms
- Press the wiper arm onto the stud
- Lower the arm to the windshield
- Tighten the 15mm nut to the wiper arm
- Press on the wiper arm cap
Tools needed
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Socket Extensions
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Phillips Head Screwdriver
15mm Socket
8mm Socket
10mm Socket
Ratchet
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years. We're dedicated to delivering quality auto parts, expert customer service, fast and free shipping, all backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Visit us at 1AAuto.com, your trusted source for quality auto parts.
So disconnect your negative battery cable. Ours is a 10mm, but yours may be 8mm. Loosen up the terminal. Take the cable off and set it aside.
To move your wiper arms, start small with a flat blade screwdriver or pick tool, and work it under the back side here. Take the cap off, and there's a nut underneath. Repeat this on the other side. Use a 15mm socket and ratchet and remove the two 15mm nuts. Usually you can break them free by pressing, and then you pull them up and off.
You can see I've got a nice pollen mark here. You could also use a dry erase marker and just mark where your wiper blades sit before you remove them. The windshield cowl panel, with the hood closed, there's a series of screws on each side. This is actually a two piece panel. You take a little pick tool, remove this plug, and it's the same on the other side. And then there's a Phillips screw down in there. And then there's a Phillips screw here. There should be one there and another one there for the driver's side.
I'm going to use a Phillips screwdriver, just the one with the four points. On the passenger’s side, once you remove the plug there's one, two, three, four, and five screws. Now pop your hood from the inside. Take the latch out. And on each side again, there is a clip. With a plastic trim removal tool available at 1AAuto.com, pull this clip up and out. And then there are some clips that hold it across the back of the engine bay. They just pull off.
On the driver's side you can pull the cowl weatherstrip off, and then the cowl panel comes up and out. The same thing is over here. Remove the clip. Pull off these two clips. To unplug the motor, just push down on this tab and work the connection off. And then three 8mm bolts hold the assembly in place: one here, one here, and one over here. We're using an 8mm socket with a ratchet and extension to make it easier. Once you have the assembly free, you want to open up the hood, and we're going to let the hood kind of go back and rest on the windshield.
We'll remove this pin here, and then on each side, you'll want to have somebody help you out, but you're going to take off the support rods, which just entails pulling out on a clip here. Hold up the hood. And remove the rod on each side. And we'll remove the hose from the clip there, and again I have somebody holding the hood. And then slowly bring your hood up, and we've got a blanket on the windshield.
It doesn't really put that much pressure on the windshield, because it's pretty much straight up in the air. Let it sit back. To pull it up and out, you want to reposition the arms. So there's an 8mm bolt, basically, if you follow the shaft right through the motor, there's the 8mm bolt right back here. Take an 8mm wrench, get it onto that bolt, and then when you turn it, you can see the arms move. And basically you just want to move them until, if you look over here, you'll see this arm here. Line that arm up kind of like that, so you'll have more room to pull the thing out. And then it'll come up. Up and over, and bring that side down. Bring the assembly out. And I can just kind of show you. Provided your whole system broke in the original position, if it's in the off position it's going to be like this.
Like I said, you just want to get your wrench in there and move the arms so they're kind of lined up with the rest of the mechanism. In order to get it apart, I'll actually just bring it down a little bit. And then I have access to that 8mm bolt. And I'm going to remove that. In order to do that, I'm going to actually put a screwdriver here to hold. Remove that bolt. And now I can carefully use a flat blade screwdriver and pry and remove the arm. And now I can remove the other three bolts to separate the motor from the linkage.
Original motor from the vehicle. New one from 1A Auto. They're exactly the same, and the connectors are the same.
If it comes with a transmission arm like this, you'll want to remove it and use your original. Hold the arm and remove the 10mm bolt. We'll note the position. It's slightly different from our original, and that's only because we turned the original a little bit so we could get things out of the way. So we'll take that off. Actually, we could just take it, turn it a little bit to match the original, and it does. This side is flat while this side is rounded so that you can make sure it's pretty much lined up with the original.
It’s ready to install. This cap actually comes off. Put the motor in. Start all three bolts first. So I've got all three bolts close. I'm just going to try and center this as well as I possibly can, and then tighten it up. And then this cap goes in like this. And now you can put your arm back into place. Put the bolt on and tighten it up.
So you're ready to put the assembly back in. Now go in and down. So get it in, pull it back this way, then lift that up, and slide it in. Drop it down. And you can actually plug the motor in, and now we'll install our three bolts.
And then reconnect your negative battery cable. Put it on and tighten up the bolt. Again ours is 10mm, yours may be different.
And now you'll just want to turn the key on and run the windshield wipers. Turn them off. Now your wiper motor and transmission are in the parked position and you can see these arms are pointed back down in there.
Slowly bring the hood back down, make sure the clip is in your hood support rods. Put that one on. And install the other one. Connect the washer tube and harness clips. Your cowl panel has a locating pin and also one here. And there may be some other ones, but this may be broken. Put it in place and the same thing on this side: down and in place. And this comes out in front. Make sure it's down. Put the clip back here. Two clips on the side. The lip of this should go towards the engine. And you can bring the hood down.
Reinstall your screws. Put the grommet back on. So sometimes these clips will get out of line, so you might have to just put your screwdriver down in. Straighten it out a little bit so you can see the hole. And then put the screw in. And reinstall the wiper arms, and we noticed usually that when you have your wipers it kind of lines up with the windshield. What happened is somebody had put these wipers on incorrectly. They had the passenger's side one on the driver's side. So the driver's side should go on, and there should be about an inch between the bottom of the windshield here and where the wiper sits. And then this passenger's side should just be up off, and again, about an inch between the wiper blade and where the black is on the windshield.
Pressing down on. The driver's side has a little more of a bend in it than the passenger's side, and that allows it just to sit straighter. Once you have them on there, put your 15mm nuts to hold them in place. And press them down, and then tighten them up with a 15mm wrench or socket ratchet. Then if you ever detect that the wiper arms slip at all, you want to come on here and tighten them up more, get them to stop slipping. And install the caps to finish it up.
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